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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. Who does the narrator think wakes him up the evening after sleeping by the church?

2. What does the clerk of the grocery store wrap up for the narrator when he enters?

3. What does the narrator worry about as he sits outside Our Saviour's Church?

4. What does the narrator offer the old man who sits down on his bench?

5. What is the narrator tempted to steal from the marketplace?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator punish himself for nearly asking the editor for money?

2. Why does the narrator suspect Scissors of trying to drive him away?

3. Why do the two shopkeepers refuse the narrator money?

4. What stories does the narrator tell to explain the package with his green blanket inside?

5. How has the narrator's poverty already been revealed to the reader?

6. How is the narrator feeling when he leaves the apartment?

7. Describe the narrator's fantasy of Princess Ylayali's castle.

8. What lie does the narrator invent to explain why he returned for the pencil?

9. Describe the narrator's apartment at the beginning of the novel.

10. What happens when the narrator angrily rings the bell of a random third-floor apartment?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the author's writing style. How would you describe the author's prose style? What kind of vocabulary does he use? What meaning does the author's style give to the story?

Essay Topic 2

How does the narrator's pride doom him to failure? What does his working on a ship at the end of the novel show about his pride? What devices does Knut Hamsun use to explore the narrator's pride?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the parallels between the narrator's surroundings and his mental state. How do the narrator's surroundings affect his writing? How are his thoughts influenced by being in certain locations, such as by a church or at the pier?

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