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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. In Chapter 5, how does the narrator characterize the world without man?

2. What role does Ishmael say the Fertile Crescent plays in the narrator’s story?

3. In Chapter 5, what perspective does Ishmael say the narrator should look at the world from?

4. How does Ishmael say the narrator learned the story of ‘how things came to be this way’?

5. What does Ishmael say he can offer the narrator in Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. How does the narrator characterize the problems with the narrator’s culture?

6. What does Ishmael say is his greatest fantasy?

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

8. 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?

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

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

When the narrator tells Ishmael that he has a question, Ishmael says that asking questions is what the narrator is there for. How seriously is this statement intended, do you think? Is that the narrator’s primary role—asking questions to elicit Ishmael’s stories—or does he have other purposes that are more important than that?

Essay Topic 2

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

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?

(see the answer keys)

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