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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. What first alarms the narrator about the apple-tree table?

2. Where do "'Gees" come from?

3. What disease does Captain Delano learn has swept off much of the crew and cargo of slaves?

4. How do the bachelors in the Temple keep time?

5. How did Captain Delano evaluate the relationship between Benito Cereno and Babo?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator claim shows Jack Gentian's natural gentility?

2. Why does the narrator of "I and My Chimney" believe his chimney is good for invalids?

3. In "The Lightning Rod Man," why does the narrator pretend to mistake the salesman for the god Jupiter Tonans?

4. What does the narrator of "The Piazza" think when he first sees a single bright spot in the northwestern hills?

5. What seems odd about Benito Cereno's ship when Captain Delano first sees it?

6. Why do the peacocks on the wallpaper in the parlor seem to the narrator to represent Jimmy Rose?

7. What is the figurehead on the San Dominick?

8. Why does the narrator of "The Lightning Rod Man" compare the salesman to a worm?

9. Why did the Spanish naval board of inquiry at first reject parts of Benito Cereno's deposition?

10. Why does the owner of the paper factory in "The Tartarus of Maids" tell the narrator that all of his workers are called "girls"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Several of the stories in this collection deal with relationships between men and women. Using at least two stories as a basis, evaluate Melville's understanding of the status of women in his society and culture. Did he agree with, condemn, or remain neutral about the rights of women?

Essay Topic 2

Melville often leaves critical parts of a story unsaid. In "The Town-Ho's Story," for instance, the reader never knows what threat Steelkilt mutters to the captain that causes him to decide not to flog Steelkilt. Likewise, in Hunilla's story in "The Encantadas," he says that " . . . the unnamed events which befell Hunilla on this isle, let them abide between her and her God. In nature, as in law, it may be libelous to speak some truths." Analyze the effectiveness of withholding key information from the reader in this way.

Essay Topic 3

Melville employs a wide variety of stylistic techniques in his writing, including a poetic use of repetition. In "I and My Chimney," for example, he writes of " . . . a mysterious door, entering to a mysterious closet; and here I keep mysterious cordials of a choice, mysterious flavor." In your essay, analyze this and other examples of artful repetition you find in these stories.

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