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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 item does the narrator bring Ishmael at the carnival?

2. How does Ishmael characterize the Takers’ response to the law he and the narrator discuss in Chapter 8?

3. What is the root of the narrator’s objection to hunter-gatherer life?

4. In Chapter 11, how does Ishmael define culture?

5. Why does the narrator say he groans when Ishmael asks him how man became man?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What is man’s role and responsibility as Ishmael describes it from the Leavers’ perspective?

6. What major change has taken place in the dialogue in Chapter 9, and what has brought this change about?

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

8. 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?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

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 3

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

(see the answer keys)

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