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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. Why does the songwriter Naguchi commit suicide?

2. What is the common subject of Moriyama's paintings?

3. Why had Matsuda called Ono naive in the old days?

4. How does Setsuko think Saito felt about Ono?

5. When did Saito first meet Ono?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Matsuda say the smell of burning most likely means now that the war is long over?

2. How does Ono explain Naguchi's suicide to Ichiro?

3. Why is Ono irritated at Setsuko's insistence that Saito never heard of Ono until the miai?

4. What does Matsuda say about his own perspective now that he is old and ill?

5. Why does Ono admire Sugimura's work on Kawabe Park, even though Sugimura failed to accomplish his goals?

6. After re-establishing contact with Matsuda during Noriko's marriage negotiations, what contact have Ono and Matsuda had before Matsuda dies?

7. Why did Moriyama's students never comment directly to him about his paintings?

8. Why didn't Moriyama applaud his student's maturing talent as an artist?

9. Why does Ono approve of his teacher's distancing himself from his students' discussions?

10. What effect did Moriyama try to create in his paintings?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you see as Ishiguro's overarching theme in this story? Why did he write it? What is he trying to teach, and to whom? Consider the fact that the book was published first in English.

Essay Topic 2

Ishiguro devotes a great deal of description to the physical venues of Ono's city. Take the point of view of a reporter who is visiting the city to report on its postwar condition in 1948. As a reporter, what would you say about the parks? The homes? The pleasure district? If you returned in 1950, what would you report? Have there been significant changes? In your second paragraph, take the point of view of the same reporter returning after two years to observe the physical differences. What is still there? What is gone? What is there that wasn't before?

Essay Topic 3

The Bridge of Hesitation is an important symbol in this story and Ono says that he spends a great deal of time there. What does the bridge represent? Are there various possible meanings? Consider the fact that in the midst of the destruction of much of the area, the bridge remained.

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