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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 unusual about Xavier's presence at the blond girl's funeral?
2. Why do Jaromil's drawings favor dogs?
3. How does Xavier use sleep?
4. What sacred contract does Maman feel that Jaromil is violating?
5. According to Maman, where was the poet conceived?
Short Essay Questions
1. 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?
2. 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?
3. How does Jaromil view the loss of his virginity as a metaphysical event? Is his perception true?
4. How are Jaromil's university experiences told in the novel? What message does this convey to the reader about the scope of the novel?
5. 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?
6. When Maman combs Jaromil's hair in front of her guests, how does he react? According to the implications of the text, how does this deepen the rift between them?
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. How does Jaromil prepare for a date with a girl? How does his preparation actually make him completely unprepared for the date?
9. What role do the twenty telephone receivers play in the story?
10. "It was sad, but beautiful, too: for a moment, Jaromil lost the feeling of being a mere child" (Part 3, Chapter 25, pg 150). What causes this moment? Will it last?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Is Jaromil's jealousy of the redhead's body acceptable? How is he acting toward her in the same way that Maman acts toward him?
Essay Topic 2
Jaromil has realized several times that he has not entered into "real life" (Part 5, Chapter 5, pg 216). Where are the instances of this? How does this convert the book's title into a theme throughout the book?
Essay Topic 3
What is the significance in very few names? Who has a name and what importance does this convey?
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This section contains 1,793 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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