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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 night does Magda take her bath?
2. In desperation for a response, what does Jaromil mail to the famous poet?
3. What does Jaromil write in his diary about the night he was supposed to lose his virginity?
4. Where does Jaromil show off opinions about education which he heard from his grandfather?
5. How does Maman view her love for the young engineer?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Jaromil view the loss of his virginity as a metaphysical event? Is his perception true?
2. When Kundera opens the scene of Maman and Jaromil's vacation, he uses many descriptive words and phrases. What effect does this have on the reading of the novel?
3. What revelation does Maman have about her husband one night after a party? How does this affect her relationship with Jaromil?
4. As Jaromil reaches adolescence, why is manhood so important to him?
5. How does Kundera describe Jaromil's nursing? How does this set the tone for the future relationship between mother and son?
6. Why is Maman angry at Jaromil because of her love life? Is her anger justified?
7. Given the first three paragraphs of Part 2, what leads the reader to believe that this character is Jaromil? What clues tell the reader that it is someone else?
8. 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?
9. Consider titles of the novel, sections, and chapters. How do the titles help to establish the frame of the story?
10. How does Part 4 begin? What are the literary advantages to this?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
What is the significance in very few names? Who has a name and what importance does this convey?
Essay Topic 2
When is Jaromil compared to other poets? How does their fame reflect on him? What is the effect of these comparisons?
Essay Topic 3
Xavier's woman lover looks like an aquatic being (Part 2, Chapter 4, pg 73). What are the ties to Jaromil's perception of Magda? What importance does water have in the perception of beautiful women? What connections are there to ice?
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This section contains 1,711 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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