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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. How does Ishmael characterize the notion that agriculture started in the Fertile Crescent?
2. How long ago did the Takers’ story come into existence?
3. What does Ishmael say man’s importance must be, in the eyes of the gods, in the narrator’s creation myth?
4. How does Ishmael characterize man’s progress, once he discovered agriculture?
5. In Chapter 5, how does the narrator characterize the world without man?
Short Essay Questions
1. What are the definitions Ishmael lays out for the narrator?
2. 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?
3. What correlation does Ishmael draw between Nazi Germany and the narrator’s culture?
4. What was the consequence of agriculture in the narrator’s account?
5. How does Ishmael say the Takers envision the earth?
6. Describe the man who takes Ishmael from the menagerie.
7. How does Ishmael say Hitler captivated the German people?
8. How does Ishmael characterize the earth before the development of human culture?
9. Why does Walter Sokolow adopt Ishmael?
10. What is the ‘but’ Ishmael says is part of the narrator’s culture’s myth, and where does the ‘but’ come from?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Evaluate your own reading of Ishmael—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.
Essay Topic 2
What is the role of Judaism and Christianity in Ishmael? What is the importance of Walter Sokolow’s Jewishness? What is the role of the narrator’s religion? Ishmael’s?
Essay Topic 3
What are the simliarities and differences between Ishmael and normal novels, with plots—with rising action, climax, falling action and a denoument? In what ways is the dialogue between Ishmael and the narrator typical of novels? In what ways is it un-novel-like? From a literary standpoint, is its uniqueness a benefit, or an oddity?
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This section contains 902 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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