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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 does Pierre talk about during his game of chess with Cincinnatus?

2. What does Cecilia C. give to Cincinnatus?

3. Where is the light on Cincinnatus' ceiling placed?

4. What does Pierre anoint himself and Cincinnatus with?

5. What does Cincinnatus do when Marthe offers to have sex with him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is a nonnon?

2. How does Cincinnatus react when Pierre, the director, and the lawyer announce that it is time for his execution?

3. What does Pierre do, when the party moves outside at the meeting between Cincinnatus, Pierre, and the city officials?

4. What does Emmie's mother describe as Emmie's last prank before going back to school?

5. What does Pierre realize that he has forgotten in his speech?

6. What does the librarian do when Cincinnatus tries to express his true thoughts?

7. What did Cecilia C. ask Marthe for, and what was Marthe's response?

8. How does Rodion act toward Cincinnatus?

9. What is on the list of acceptable last requests that Pierre reads?

10. Describe the plot of Quercus.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss communication in the novel.

1) Why does Cincinnatus believe he has communicated with whoever he hears digging a tunnel beyond his wall? How does he feel about having communicated? What does he hope to gain through this communication?

2) How does Cincinnatus use his writing to try to communicate? What is he trying to communicate, and to whom?

3) In what other ways does Cincinnatus try to communicate with those around him? What are the obstacles to communication?

Essay Topic 2

Cincinnatus longs to make a true human connection with his wife. Discuss the role of human connection and its opposite, isolation, in the novel.

1) What inherent conditions of being human contribute to isolating human beings from each other? How do these forces affect Cincinnatus and the novel?

2) How does society and culture work to isolate human beings in the novel and prevent human connections?

3) Are the other characters in the novel truly empty, without a real human being below the surface, as Cincinnatus sometimes declares?

Essay Topic 3

Many things in the novel are superficial or fake. Discuss the role of superficiality and falseness in the novel.

1) How is superficiality a part of the culture of the novel?

2) What items in Cincinnatus' surroundings such as in his prison and his cell are fake? What do these fake items signify? How does Cincinnatus perceive them?

3) How are the people surrounding Cincinnatus fake? Why does he perceive them as unreal? What would make a person real to Cincinnatus?

(see the answer keys)

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