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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 two Serpent Club members appear incongruously in Chapter 102?

2. Which two characters attempt to analyze Maga in Chapter 142?

3. What is significant about the hotel that Pola and Horacio go to in Chapter 92?

4. Why does Talita wake up in Chapter 45?

5. What absurdist writer is quoted in Chapter 145?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Horacio get arrested at the Ponts des Arts in Chapter 36?

2. What is Horacio's state of mind in this section?

3. How does the novel end?

4. Why are Etienne and Horacio shocked when they get to the old writers room in Chapter in 154?

5. What do Ronald and Etienne discuss in Chapter 142?

6. Describe Manolo and Talia Traveler's lives in Buenos Aires.

7. Describe Horacio's dream in Chapter 100.

8. How does Horacio settle in Buenos Aires in this section?

9. Who is Pola, and how does she know Horacio?

10. How do Traveler and Horacio put Talita in a ridiculous position in Chapter 41?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ossip Gregorovius and Horacio Oliveira are at odds with each other for the entirety of the first book of the novel. Write an essay about their rivalry as it relates both to dominance in the Serpent Club and the affections of La Maga. What about Ossip disgusts Horacio and vice versa? How is Ossip able to play toward Horacio's weaknesses as events conspire to deflate Horacio? What indication is there that Ossip actually has an affair with Maga? In summation, discuss what final critique Ossip makes of Horacio after Maga has disappeared.

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

The fictional guru of Cortazar's Hopscotch is the iconoclast writer Morelli. Morelli at once represents a lofty literary ideal and stands in for Cortazar himself. Write an essay about the character of Morelli, focusing on three parts:

Part 1) Most of Morelli's texts have to do with destroying old literary conventions rather than creating new ones. What conventions does he most pointedly insist be destroyed? Why does he dislike them so intently? How does he think they mar literature?

Part 2) Morelli speaks often in the novel about literature being a surrogate experience. What does this mean? How does Morelli want the reader to relate to the novel? What particularly provocative ideas does Morelli have for achieving this?

Part 3) How is Morelli a fictional stand-in for Julio Cortazar? How are Cortazar's ideas similar to Morelli's? To what extent is Morelli, when the reader meets him in the expendable chapters, writing the novel HOPSCOTCH?

(see the answer keys)

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