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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 5: Chaps. 9-11, pp. 242-266.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the silver-haired poet's attitude toward the poetry reading in the auditorium?
(a) He is grateful to Marxism for bringing such disparate people together.
(b) He is too good for the young people who have gathered.
(c) He deserves to be honored for his poetic achievements.
(d) He is a young person moving toward the future.

2. Why does Maman weep as the artist makes love to her?
(a) She is sad that she will never marry him.
(b) She knows that she is nothing more than the canvas for his ideas.
(c) She is finally ashamed of the affair.
(d) She equates him to the Apollo statue, which she had wanted to be the model of Jaromil's personality.

3. Why does Maman take her husband's picture off the wall?
(a) He had not been involved in the underground resistance.
(b) He had been complying with the Communist takeover.
(c) She fell in love with someone else.
(d) He had been having an affair with a Jewish girl.

4. Why is Jaromil especially proud of the slogan "No churches"?
(a) He hates the idea of God.
(b) The youth of today do not need to be burdened by religion.
(c) The statement erases two thousand years of history.
(d) Church reminds him of his mother.

5. According to Kundera, what is "tenderness"?
(a) The proper response of a parent to the child.
(b) The sheltering of a child so that he does not mature.
(c) The affection of the woman for her lover.
(d) Treating the woman like a child, for fear of consequences.

Short Answer Questions

1. How is the university girl different from any other girl Jaromil has known?

2. How does Jaromil treat his dates with girls?

3. Who or what is the real source of Jaromil's poetic inspiration?

4. What justification does Maman give herself for her initial infidelity?

5. What does Jaromil see as the sign that his verses have true power?

(see the answer key)

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