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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ishmael say man’s importance must be, in the eyes of the gods, in the narrator’s creation myth?
(a) Man must attain value as he understands the gods’ laws
(b) Man must be a creature of enormous importance
(c) Certain men must be more important than others
(d) Man must be insignificant

2. How does Ishmael say Takers regard the world?
(a) As an animal to be domesticated
(b) As a garden of provisions
(c) As life-support for human beings
(d) As a gift to be cherished

3. What is the office building like, where the narrator answers the newspaper ad?
(a) Gleaming, modern
(b) Classical, proud
(c) Run-down, seedy
(d) Ordinary

4. What end does Ishmael say he foresees for the Takers’ culture?
(a) Conquest
(b) Redemption
(c) Chaos
(d) Catastrophe

5. What does the narrator say his relationship with Nazi Germany is?
(a) He is a student of it
(b) He has always gone out of his way to avoid learning about it
(c) He is moderately well informed about it
(d) He is unaware of the details of Nazi rule

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ishmael say, in Chapter 2, about the path he will take the narrator on?

2. What does the narrator say the ad in Chapter 1 was looking for?

3. How does Ishmael respond when the narrator says that he does not believe that he is part of a story?

4. How does Ishmael define a story?

5. How does Ishmael characterize the people who recognized the mythology of Hitler’s rule, but went along with it anyway?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the sign that the narrator notices behind the gorilla say, and what does the narrator interpret it to mean?

2. What correlation does Ishmael draw between Nazi Germany and the narrator’s culture?

3. What is the rival creation story Ishmael tells the narrator?

4. What was the consequence of agriculture in the narrator’s account?

5. Why is the narrator so upset to see Ishmael’s ad in the paper?

6. What does the narrator’s culture’s reliance on prophets indicate to Ishmael?

7. What does Ishmael say is his greatest fantasy?

8. What is the ‘but’ Ishmael says is part of the narrator’s culture’s myth, and where does the ‘but’ come from?

9. What are the definitions Ishmael lays out for the narrator?

10. How does Ishmael say that their discussion is like sightseeing?

(see the answer keys)

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