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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. What is the narrator rejected at the fire department for wearing?

2. Where does the narrator tell the old man he lives?

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

4. How does the narrator get Pastor Levison's address?

5. What makes the narrator cry?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator find sitting on his bedside table when he returns to his old apartment?

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

3. Why is the narrator interested in the newspaper-wrapped package of the old man?

4. Why does the narrator become annoyed with the old man?

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

6. Why does the narrator decide to return to his old apartment?

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

8. How do the policemen throughout the novel treat the narrator?

9. How do the hayracks treat the narrator?

10. Why is the narrator put into a reserved cell?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the values of the late 1800s. In what way are the characters products of their time? Does the book express the changes in either Norway or America at the time?

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

Fantasy plays a large role in this novel. Discuss the narrator and Ylayali's fantasies of one another. How do they differ from reality? How do you think they affect the character's actions?

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