View a FREE sample

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 characterize a community that does not live by the peace-keeping law?

2. What does the narrator say he feels when he takes a few days off from his discussion with Ishmael in Chapter 8?

3. How does Ishmael propose, in Chapter 7, to learn how they can find out for themselves how to live?

4. How does the narrator continue his dialogue with Ishmael in a new setting in Chapter 10?

5. What does Ishmael say is ironic about the story the Takers adopted about two thousand years ago?

Short Essay Questions

1. What surprising behavior does Ishmael describe for the narrator in an imaginary hospitable city?

2. How does Ishmael characterize the work of competing for food in Taker culture?

3. What does the narrator say is the consequence of the Takers’ culture?

4. How does Ishmael say the Takers are fulfilling the story in which creation came to an end with them?

5. How does Ishmael characterize the debate among the gods about an equitable way to take care of the animals?

6. How does Ishmael characterize the experiment that is modern civilization?

7. What does the narrator say he would do to figure out the fundamental law of the community Ishmael describes?

8. Where has Ishmael gone when the narrator shows up again at the office building, and how does the narrator reconnect with him?

9. Describe the narrator’s negotiations with Art Owens.

10. What does Ishmael say is the benefit of what he calls the peace-keeping law?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the outcome of the dialogue between Ishmael and the narrator? What influence has the book had on American or western culture? What influence does it have in your reading? How might this book change the story you are enacting?

Essay Topic 2

Aside from the dialogue they conduct, Ishmael and the narrator seem to have a tense, and sometimes adversarial relationship. What is the role of their personal relationship in the novel, and how does it affect the narrator’s developing understanding of Ishmael’s teachings?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 987 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample