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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 does the Professor use the paperclips for?

2. What does the narrator immediately notice when he returns to his apartment?

3. What does the narrator ask the Librarian to do for him when he is finished reading skulls?

4. What is the first thing the narrator mentions when telling his shadow about his doubts?

5. Where does the narrator think it might not be bad to end his life?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the Town's power source.

2. How does the narrator explain his decision in Chapter 40?

3. How does the narrator react to the musical instruments in Chapter 28?

4. Describe the scene when the narrator first enters the laundromat.

5. How does the narrator whistling "I Go to Pieces" in Chapter 29 relate to the overall storyline?

6. What is "the encyclopedia wand"?

7. What does the narrator do after arriving in his apartment in Chapter 31?

8. Why does the librarian wake the narrator up in the middle of the night at the beginning of Chapter 37? Explain what happens and how the librarian and narrator react.

9. Why does the Librarian say the accordion is "the key" in Chapter 36?

10. How does the narrator's shadow say he developed his plan of escape in Chapter 38?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter 37, the narrator says he was born by the sea and liked to collect things washed on shore by the typhoon. He says his life has always been about "gathering up the junk, sorting through it, and then casting it off somewhere else. All for no purpose...". Explain how the narrator's current life is this way and draw parallels between this and the people in the Town.

Essay Topic 2

Consider the fact that the narrator in Chapter 37 says that he's never chosen to do anything of his own free will. Plead for or against the truth of this statement by contrasting it with the choices the narrator makes about his own life leading up to the end of the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Consider the first two chapters of the book. In the first chapter, the narrator is stuck in an elevator. In the second chapter, the beasts and the coming of autumn are described. Compare and contrast the tone of both of these chapters.

(see the answer keys)

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