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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. After shooting President Lincoln, what does Edwin say his brother John does?

2. What kind of healthy dessert does Daunta learn to make and prepare for the immigrants?

3. How does Maryna burn her hand?

4. What is the name of the theatrical journal in Warsaw?

5. What did Maryna buy for Aniela to wear in the photograph?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Chapter Seven, Bogdan injures himself and cannot come to San Francisco. What happens between Ryszard and Maryna? How do they change? What happens to their relationship by the end of the chapter?

2. Maryna hires Eliza Withington to take a photograph of the group. Why does she do this? What conversation takes place between Eliza and Maryna after the photo shoot? How does the photo turn out?

3. After their brief affair, Maryna breaks off her relationship with Ryszard and sends him away. Why does Maryna end the relationship? How do each of them react to the rejection?

4. What does Julian's wife, Wanda, do when she arrives on their land? How is this typical of the character as she is portrayed by the narrator?

5. In Chapter Six, many of the characters take on new names. Who are they and what are their new names? How does Maryna react to this change?

6. Edwin Booth talks about his father and his brother, John Booth. What does he reveal about these two important figures in his life?

7. In Chapter Six, the communal group begins to break up. Where do people go? Does anyone join another commune? Do any of the group remain in California?

8. In his love letter to Maryna in which he asks her to travel with him, Ryzard refers to Jack Goodyear, a squatter Ryszard has met in the mountains. Jack Goodyear explains to Ryszard that "sometimes it seems to him as though there were two Jacks." What does Goodyear mean by this?

9. What story does Ryszard write based on the events at the circus? What is his purpose for writing his story?

10. In Chapter Eight, Maryna talks about her "newly reconstituted family." Who are the members of the family, and what roles do each of these people play in Maryna's life? What does Maryna declare to Bogdan about her life with this family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ryszard thinks a great deal about class and privilege while on board the Germania on his way to America. Is the ship an analogy of a social system in America? Discuss this analogy and how accurate it is for America during the late nineteenth century as described in the novel.

Essay Topic 2

In the opening chapter, the narrator says "the past is the biggest country of all" and expresses the wish to set stories in the past. Discuss this quote and it's relevance to the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, Maryna is comparing the commune to a marriage. What does she mean by this? How are the two similar in her mind? How are they different?

(see the answer keys)

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