Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. How does Maman view her love for the young engineer?
2. After the debate in the artist's apartment, how does Jaromil know he is no longer welcome there?
3. What reason does the poet's father give for not having more children?
4. How does Xavier use sleep?
5. What does Xavier find most compelling about the woman in the house?
Short Essay Questions
1. "For real life is elsewhere. The students are pulling up cobblestones, overturning cars, making barricades; their entrance into the world is noise and magnificent, illuminated by flames and glorified by explosions of tear gar grenades" (Part 4, pg 175). What does this mean in the context of Jaromil's life?
2. What role does Jaromil want the artist to play in his life? How does the artist fall short of these expectations?
3. When Jaromil is unable to make love to the university girl a second time, he pretends that there is another woman in his life. To what extent is this true?
4. Why is Jaromil thrilled at the thought of catching Magda, the family maid, in the bathtub? What does this say about his sexual development?
5. Consider titles of the novel, sections, and chapters. How do the titles help to establish the frame of the story?
6. 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?
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. What revelation does Maman have about her husband one night after a party? How does this affect her relationship with Jaromil?
10. At the debate in Part 3, Chapter 15, what arguments does Jaromil make about progress? Given his own life, how are these views ironic?
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
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?
|
This section contains 1,855 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
