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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. On what subject does Horatio privately expound at the end of Chapter 17?

2. What do Ossip, Maga, and Horacio drink in Chapter 28?

3. Why does Rocamadour move in with Maga and Horacio in Chapter 19?

4. Where does Chapter 143 take place?

5. Where do Horatio and La Maga meet at the beginning of Chapter 6?

Short Essay Questions

1. When does Chapter 7 appear to take place, and why?

2. How does the Serpent Club relate to La Maga?

3. How is the reader made aware of Rocamadour's death in Chapter 28?

4. What is Horacio's goal for living in Paris?

5. How does Maga and Horacio's sex life become eerily unhealthy in Chapter 5?

6. Why is La Maga irate in Chapter 93?

7. What conversation regarding their relationship do Maga and Horacio have in Chapter 20?

8. Why does La Maga feel responsible for Pola's death in Chapter 27?

9. Why are Maga and Horacio so affected by the fish in Chapter 8?

10. How does Horacio meet Berthe Trepat?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The motif of madness permeates the second book of HOPSCOTCH to the point that by the end even the reader is unsure what is real and what is not. Write an essay on the topic of madness, focusing on the character of Horacio. What begins his spiral away from sanity? How does encroaching madness manifest itself at first, and how does it accelerate when he begins to work at the mental hospital? In the end, how is Horacio unable to process reality?

Essay Topic 2

The novel of HOPSCOTCH is largely a novel about ideas and flights of bohemian fancy, but existent above and below the would-be sweet life of the narrative is the omnipresent specter of death. Write an essay about death in the novel, focusing on three instances of it. How do the characters struggle and strive to ignore mortality in the novel? How does every instance of it in the narrative seem to shatter some delicate balance? What is destroyed by it?

Part 1) Rocamadour

Part 2) Pola

Part 3) The end of the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Horacio Oliveira is a callous, self-involved, deeply-jealous individual. He is, however, the novel's protagonist, and Cortazar reveals both his flaws and virtues through a series of foils. Write an essay about three of these foils. How does Horacio know each of them? What is the nature of the conflict that exists between him and each foil? What does this conflict reveal about both Horacio and the foil?

Part 1) La Maga

Part 2) Ossip Gregorovius

Part 3) Manolo Traveler

(see the answer keys)

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