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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. Which theatre theorist is quoted in Chapter 128?

2. How does the point of view change in Chapter 3?

3. What traumatic event is related by Maga in Chapter 15?

4. Who is Rocamadour?

5. Chapter 65 is a dossier of which Serpent Club member?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are La Maga and Horacio different?

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

3. How does Horacio's state of mind change over the course of this section?

4. What is the Club's Principle problem with the theories of Morelli, as stated in Chapter 141?

5. Why is La Maga irate in Chapter 93?

6. What news do Babs and Ronald bring to Maga's apartment in Chapter 28?

7. What awful event does Maga describe in Chapter 15?

8. In Chapter 26, what reason does Ossip offer for Horacio's leaving?

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

10. What is Ossip's diagnosis of Horacio in Chapter 16?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

HOPSCOTCH takes place in two large but intensely disparate cities: Paris and Buenos Aires. These two settings, and Horacio's attitude toward them, create two divergent tones within the novel. Write an essay about these two settings:

Part 1) What observations about the intellectual life in Paris does Horacio make at the beginning of the novel? How does this observation typify his attitude toward it as a setting? Write a paragraph noting several characters, locations and groups that represent the Paris of the novel.

Part 2) How is Buenos Aires markedly different from Paris in HOPSCOTCH? What is the tone of this setting, based upon the weather, the social gatherings, and the way in which Horacio must live in both? How is Buenos Aires more whimsical?

Part 3) Noting the differences between Paris and Buenos Aires above, write a summation paragraph discussing how the transition between the two locations indicates a shift in Horacio. What is the nature of this shift, and how does it affect him emotionally?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the Serpent Club as a collective. Begin the essay by assessing that the Club wants to achieve with its debates, texts, and listening sessions? Who among them typifies this desire? Who is often ostracized in the search for this intellectual extreme? In the second half of the essay, discuss how the Club fails in this pursuit. Describe the last meeting the Club has and analyze what causes them to turn on each other. What have they lost over the course of the first book 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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