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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. In "ACT II: INT. GOLDEN PALACE," what does the protagonist find the other men doing outside his door?

2. What distinguishes the parts of the script that describe what the protagonist is doing during the filming of Black and White?

3. In the flashback in In "ACT II: INT. GOLDEN PALACE," what is the protagonist's mother studying?

4. What are the majority of the protagonist's earliest memories of his mother centered around?

5. What is so special about Older Brother?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Turner tell the protagonist about the system--about what rising up through it means, and about his own place within it?

2. Describe how residents use their small spaces at the Chinatown SRO Apartments and what this might signify.

3. Describe the interior of the Golden Palace.

4. When the protagonist finally steps into the spotlight, what is his first line, and what does it signify?

5. What is the paradox that periodically sends the residents of the Chinatown SRO Apartments over the edge into an all-night party?

6. What do people in Chinatown say about Older Brother, and why does the narrative say that it does not matter?

7. What are the multiple identities of Karen Lee?

8. What language does the protagonist speak to his father in the restaurant, and how does it reveal one source of the gap between them?

9. What are the emotional complexities of the memories attached to the protagonist's mother's scars?

10. What ultimately happened to Older Brother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you analyze how the novel develops the idea of Asian-Americans as a "marginalized" population. Stereotypes are not the focus, here--you are focusing on the idea of people being pushed out of the center of power and becoming spectators rather than actors in the larger story of America. Be sure to support your ideas with evidence from the text and to cite any outside references in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Write a thesis-driven essay in which you analyze the function of the focus throughout the text on the relative attractiveness of various characters. Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you explore the rhetorical purpose of the sexual tension between Green and Turner. What commentary on both race and performance does it make? Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claims.

(see the answer keys)

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