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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. In Chapter 5, how does the narrator characterize the world without man?
(a) Raw material
(b) Bloody jungle
(c) Post-apocalyptic dreamscape
(d) Paradise

2. Where, in the narrator’s account, does the destruction of the earth get reversed?
(a) In the future, with the children
(b) It never does
(c) As soon as someone discovers how to make money from healing the natural world
(d) As soon as the political parties can come to agreement

3. How does the narrator say that Hermann Hesse presents Leo’s “awesome secret wisdom”?
(a) He says that the novel describes it in code
(b) He says that the novel does not describe it
(c) He says that Leo describes it as a mystical vision
(d) He says that the novel is enigmatic on the topic of the wisdom

4. When does Ishmael say he was truly born?
(a) When he realized that he had a name
(b) When he realized that he was a gorilla
(c) When he realized that his name was not his
(d) When he learned to read

5. How does the narrator characterize the 1960s?
(a) As the great cultural leap forward
(b) As the time of the children’s revolt
(c) As a the time when culture was completely lost
(d) As a period of hopeless despair

Short Answer Questions

1. What terms do Ishmael’s terms ‘Takers’ and ‘Leavers’ correspond to?

2. How long ago did the Leavers’ story come into existence?

3. From whose perspective does Ishmael tell a rival creation story in Chapter 4?

4. In Chapter 4, how does the narrator say men used to live before they became men?

5. In Chapter 3, how does Ishmael tell the narrator to think, when he tries to get him to see the myth of his culture?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator react when Ishmael finally gets him to see that his culture’s narrative is just a myth—and what is the significance of the narrator’s response?

2. What does Ishmael say will be the result, once the narrator learns to hear Mother Culture’s voice?

3. What does Ishmael say the narrator’s creation myth justifies?

4. How does Ishmael say the Takers envision the earth?

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

6. How does the narrator characterize the problems with the narrator’s culture?

7. How does Ishmael describe the difference between living in Africa and living in a zoo?

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

9. What does Ishmael say is his greatest fantasy?

10. How would you characterize Ishmael’s tone with the narrator in general, as they talk regularly?

(see the answer keys)

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