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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 a community lacks, when it has lost its diversity?

2. How does Ishmael characterize the law the narrator is looking for?

3. What looming crisis does Ishmael imply will correct the ‘Takers’’ excesses?

4. What does the narrator talk to Art Owens about?

5. Why does the narrator have a hard time agreeing to Art Owens’ demands?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why does the narrator say that he is depressed when he does not see Ishmael for a few days?

3. What reading does Ishmael give the Bible story of Cain and Abel?

4. How do Ishmael and the narrator say that culture changed when the agricultural revolution took place?

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

6. What keeps the narrator from returning to the office building for a few days?

7. What are the gods wary of, in letting Adam have the knowledge of good and evil?

8. How does Ishmael say the Takers explain their divergence from the peace-keeping law that has kept nature harmonious for three million years?

9. What are the three tricks Ishmael says the gods played on the Takers?

10. The narrator says that he wants to know the Leavers’ story so he can stop the destruction of the Takers’ story. Why does Ishmael say this is insufficient?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an evaluative review of Ishmael. What is this book’s place in culture? What are its uses? What are its limitations?

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

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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