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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Henry sleep for three or four days?

2. Where does Henry go for a job on Monday?

3. What is the name of the cafe opposite Chinaski's room?

4. What does Henry have to put up in the subways?

5. Why does Henry say he wants a gorgeous wife?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Carson Gentry make Henry understand about life in the fourth section?

2. What does Henry do while drunk with his friend, Tim Hunter?

3. What is Henry's frame of mind when he arrives in New Orleans?

4. How does Henry anger his parents in the second section?

5. How does Willie's death affect the girls?

6. How does a relationship develop between Henry and Gertrude?

7. Describe Henry Chinaski's character.

8. How does Martha upset Henry in the second section?

9. Why does Henry decide it is time to go back to Los Angeles?

10. What does Henry do while his parents are away?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Henry's attitude towards work? Why has Henry has developed this attitude? What kind of job would Henry enjoy and excel at?

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of Bukowski's previous books and contrast it with FACTOTUM in terms of the following:

1. Style.

2. Structure.

3. Themes.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss elements of the narrative structure: exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the book's themes?

(see the answer keys)

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