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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. Who or what is the real source of Jaromil's poetic inspiration?
2. Why does Maman blame Jaromil for all her troubles?
3. What does Jaromil draw during his first lesson in the artist's studio?
4. What does Xavier take as an invitation to enter the house?
5. Why does Maman take her husband's picture off the wall?
Short Essay Questions
1. What role do the twenty telephone receivers play in the story?
2. When the Communists stage a coup, Jaromil and his uncle fight about the justice of the action. What does this fight reveal about Jaromil's place in the world, particularly in the political realm?
3. Maman and the engineer disagree about where Jaromil was conceived. Why is this an important debate?
4. Why is Maman angry at Jaromil because of her love life? Is her anger justified?
5. How does Kundera describe Jaromil's nursing? How does this set the tone for the future relationship between mother and son?
6. Why does Xavier leave the woman behind at the end of Part 2?
7. What does the artist want most of all for Maman? Why is this difficult for her?
8. How are Jaromil's university experiences told in the novel? What message does this convey to the reader about the scope of the novel?
9. How does Part 4 begin? What are the literary advantages to this?
10. "He [Jaromil] was searching for immensity. His life was hopeless, small, everything around him was flat, gray" (Part 3, Chapter 8, pg 104). How does Kundera's presentation of the novel prove this to be true?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
How do the colors of people's clothing give clues about their place in Jaromil's life? What about the colors of clothing in Xavier's life? How are the colors similar or different between the two lives?
Essay Topic 2
What is the significance in very few names? Who has a name and what importance does this convey?
Essay Topic 3
Kundera admits that the novel has the same limitations as reality (Part 6, Chapter 1, pg 269). What does this mean? How does this play out in the lives of the characters? What is the effect of speaking so candidly to the reader?
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This section contains 1,664 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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