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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 say the narrator learned the story of ‘how things came to be this way’?

2. In Chapter 6, what does Ishmael say is unobtainable in the narrator’s culture?

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

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

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the man who takes Ishmael from the menagerie.

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

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

4. What is the premise that is being played out in the narrator’s creation myth, according to Ishmael?

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

6. What does Ishmael say the Takers’ relationship to the Community of Life is?

7. How does Ishmael say Hitler captivated the German people?

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

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

10. Why does Ishmael provide the narrator with a tape recorder?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 2

Use this book as a meditation on the value of a five-star rating system. Is a five-star system sufficient to a book like this? Would you need to have sub-topics for the rating system, for plot, characterization, language, etc? What other sub-topics would you need? What value or importance gets lost in a five-star scale? Design a scale that would be better for this book.

Essay Topic 3

What is the benefit of delivering this information about mythology and the world in a dialogue with a telepathic gorilla, instead of a straight-forward essay or non-fiction book about myth and the history of mankind?

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