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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. What does Ishmael say man’s importance must be, in the eyes of the gods, in the narrator’s creation myth?
2. What does Ishmael tell the narrator to do, when the narrator cannot say what man’s destiny is in Chapter 5?
3. In Chapter 4, why does the narrator say he does not display the emotion he wants when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?
4. How does Ishmael characterize man’s progress, once he discovered agriculture?
5. How does Ishmael say the gods must have seen the world before man, according to the narrator’s culture’s story?
Short Essay Questions
1. Why is the narrator so upset to see Ishmael’s ad in the paper?
2. What is the rival creation story Ishmael tells the narrator?
3. What does the sign that the narrator notices behind the gorilla say, and what does the narrator interpret it to mean?
4. How do Ishmael and the narrator see the Takers as similar to early aeronauts?
5. Why does Walter Sokolow adopt Ishmael?
6. What does the narrator’s culture’s reliance on prophets indicate to Ishmael?
7. What does Ishmael say the narrator’s creation myth justifies?
8. What is the narrator’s reaction when he finally recognizes his creation myth as a myth?
9. What was the consequence of agriculture in the narrator’s account?
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
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 2
Assess the proposition that Ishmael is a kunstlerroman, or the coming of age of an artist story, whose protagonist is the narrator. Is this a fair proposition? Why or why not? What changes does the narrator go through that might make this a coming of age story for his artistic persona?
Essay Topic 3
When is Ishmael most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?
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This section contains 1,027 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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