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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 is the first time Jaromil's words save him from punishment?
2. Where does Xavier usually go when he skips school?
3. While kissing the old woman, why does Xavier turn on the light?
4. Why does Jaromil wait to show his poetry to the university girl?
5. What is the artist's opinion about Jaromil's drawings of headless women?
Short Essay Questions
1. After the death of Maman's husband, how does she change? Though Kundera does not make it overt, is this change for the better or for the worse?
2. Why is Jaromil attracted to the dark-haired girl? What does this attraction show about his development as a character?
3. When Jaromil returns at midnight after walking the university girl home, Maman becomes hysterical because she was worried about him. What does this scene show about these two people's perception of love?
4. What is the point of the scene in which Xavier leads his military compatriots to battle? Why does he not get his wish for death?
5. "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?
6. What does the artist want most of all for Maman? Why is this difficult for her?
7. 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?
8. While Jaromil is still a child, how does Maman prepare him for success as a writer? How does her preparation, paradoxically, also prepare him for failure?
9. Why is Jaromil thrilled at the thought of catching Magda, the family maid, in the bathtub? What does this say about his sexual development?
10. How does the artist's concept of an "inner world" (Part 1, Chapter 6, pg 30) dramatically change Jaromil's character?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
How is Xavier an important person because of the list in his notebook? How might Jaromil seek similar importance through these fantasies/dreams?
Essay Topic 2
What implications are there in Xavier's dance with the older woman? Are details of her age seen as something beautiful? How does this dance show Xavier's triumph over a girl his own age? What about over his own age? How is his love for the blond girl incomplete without his demonstration of love for the old woman?
Essay Topic 3
What element causes Jaromil's death? How is this suited to his life? What does it mean that at the end he looked into his own face, and what horror is added in that moment?
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This section contains 1,760 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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