View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of ruler buys Ruysch's collection of biological specimens?

2. The words "Mobility is Reality" (226) appear in the Moscow airport within an advertisement for what product?

3. The vignette entitled "30,000 Guilders" takes place in what century?

4. The narrator proclaims that "seeing means" (182) what?

5. What does the woman with the red suitcase do for a living?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the words of Annushka's supposed tormentor are revealed, what had the old woman been saying?

2. What country does the unnamed narrator say is the perfect place for observing people and why?

3. How is the theme of family bonds demonstrated within Annushka's story?

4. What elements does the unnamed narrator consider when deciding whether a story or a lecture is more appropriate for the story she has to tell?

5. What object does Tokarczuk use in a metaphor characterizing the nocturnal brain and why?

6. How is the theme of oppression featured within the vignettes about James Cook?

7. In what way does the theme of regret appear within the story of Van Horssen and his mentor Verheyen?

8. How does Tokarczuk present the theme of being present within the vignette entitled “Irkutsk-Moscow”?

9. In what way does the theme of compassion arise within Annushka's story?

10. Who is Annushka?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How are the topics of inheritance and legacy treated within the novel Flights and how does the treatment of these themes relate to the novel's depicted messages?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Tokarczuk's choice to tell the story of Flights using a great deal of first-person narration. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Tokarczuk’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the ways in which the novel Flights uses the motif of dreams to further its key messages.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 974 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample