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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. In the vignette entitled "Flights," the narrator states that "everything is" (227) what in hell?

2. The vignette entitled "The Achilles Tendon" opens in what year?

3. The narrator says that the airport in which city is shaped like a spine?

4. Philip Verheyen was a real person from history who held what position?

5. Nebojsa claims that travelers are pure because they have no time to think about what subject?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the loss of purity theme depicted within the narrator's conversation about giving blood?

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

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

4. Who is Annushka?

5. How does Tokarczuk use postcards as a symbol?

6. 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?

7. In what way does the unnamed narrator show an affinity for secrecy?

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

9. In what way does Tokarczuk use dialogue in order to highlight a lack of sensitivity in tourists?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how and why Tokarczuk instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of Flights.

Essay Topic 2

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Tokarczuk’s novel Flights. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

What message does Tokarczuk send within the pages of Flights concerning the link between travel and a meaningful life?

(see the answer keys)

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