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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 Takers regard the world?
2. What has the narrator’s coldness become, now that he mentions it to Ishmael a second time, at the end of Chapter 5?
3. What does Ishmael say he wants, in Chapter 4, when the narrator finally realizes the truth of what Ishmael has been talking about?
4. In Chapter 3, how does Ishmael tell the narrator to think, when he tries to get him to see the myth of his culture?
5. What does the narrator say grew where his idealism had died?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Ishmael characterize the earth before the development of human culture?
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 is the ‘but’ Ishmael says is part of the narrator’s culture’s myth, and where does the ‘but’ come from?
4. What does Ishmael say is his greatest fantasy?
5. What is the rival creation story Ishmael tells the narrator?
6. What does the sign that the narrator notices behind the gorilla say, and what does the narrator interpret it to mean?
7. Why does Ishmael provide the narrator with a tape recorder?
8. How does the narrator characterize the problems with the narrator’s culture?
9. What does Ishmael say will be the result, once the narrator learns to hear Mother Culture’s voice?
10. What is the narrator’s creation myth?
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
Is Ishmael an attack on Judaic-Christian culture, a call for reform, or something else? Use examples from the text, in addition to your knowledge of Judaic and Christian culture.
Essay Topic 3
Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?
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This section contains 847 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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