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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 he wants, in Chapter 4, when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?
(a) Gratitude
(b) Humility
(c) Astonishment
(d) Terror

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

3. In Chapter 6, what does Ishmael say is unobtainable in the narrator’s culture?
(a) Certain knowledge about how to live
(b) An orientation to natural laws
(c) Freedom from guilt
(d) An understanding of the goal of human culture

4. Who does Ishmael say is the exception to the story of the narrator’s culture?
(a) Urban poor people
(b) The very rich
(c) A few thousand savages worldwide
(d) People in socialized countries

5. When does Ishmael say that human history began?
(a) 300 thousand years ago
(b) 3 million years ago
(c) 30 thousand years ago
(d) 3 thousand years ago

Short Answer Questions

1. In the narrator’s account of his culture, in Chapter 5, what was the problem early man had to solve?

2. How does the narrator say that Hermann Hesse presents Leo’s “awesome secret wisdom”?

3. How does Ishmael get the narrator to recognize the limitation of his creation myth?

4. How does Ishmael say that men see the ruin of nature, according to the narrator’s culture’s mythology?

5. What does the narrator say made the difference between men before and the men that live now?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. 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?

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

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

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

7. What is the narrator’s reaction when he finally recognizes his creation myth as a myth?

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

9. Describe the narrator’s first encounter with Ishmael.

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

(see the answer keys)

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