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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 followers of Copernicus convinced people to change their view of heliocentrism?

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

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

4. What does Ishmael say man’s importance must be, in the eyes of the gods, in the narrator’s creation myth?

5. What does Ishmael say the narrator will be the result of learning what he is teaching?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why does Walter Sokolow adopt Ishmael?

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

4. How do Ishmael and the narrator see the Takers as similar to early aeronauts?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Would you recommend Ishmael? For what purposes would you recommend Ishmael, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

(see the answer keys)

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