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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. How did Hesse's income change in his new job?

2. Where did Hesse commence his studies?

3. What does Freedman say about artists at the beginning of his biography of Hesse?

4. When was Hesse's first child born?

5. Why did Hesse change jobs for less money around 1901?

Short Essay Questions

1. Under what circumstances did Hesse ultimately marry his first wife?

2. What circles did Hesse enter in Tubingen?

3. Describe Hesse's move to Basel.

4. Why was 1902 an important year for Hesse?

5. How big was Hesse's family?

6. What was Hesse's health like, and how did it affect his development?

7. Where would Hesse run away from? Where would he run away to?

8. How does Freedman describe Hesse's childhood?

9. Where did Hesse's writing come from?

10. What was Hesse's arrival in Tubingen like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the importance of other writers and artists in Hesse's life and in his development as a writer. What role did the circle of writers in Tubingen play for him? What did he get from their company? What did he give to that circle? What connections did he make? How did Hesse play the role of "writer" differently with his writer friends than he played the role with his family?

Essay Topic 2

Describe Hesse's relationship with his parents and family. Why didn't they get along? What traits of Hesse's strained their relationship, even from his childhood? What traits of his parents contributed to a strained relationship? How did Hesse's works, marriages, and decisions change the nature of that relationship over time?

Essay Topic 3

How did Hesse develop as a novelist? What trajectory do his novels trace? What events in his personal life influenced this trajectory? What did he learn as a novelist, and how do his novels reflect an evolution as he acquired various techniques in his writing?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 680 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample