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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. How did Tomas's hospital colleagues react when he saw Tomas at the window shop?

2. What did the bald headed man at the bar accuse Tereza of that caused the engineer to step in?

3. The image of the abandoned child Tomas had of Tereza reflected on which ancient myth?

4. How did Tomas feel after the petition was published?

5. In one of her dreams, what was it that Tereza saw floating downstream as she stared at the river?

Short Essay Questions

1. Is it Tereza's fault that Tomas had to leave his profession and ended up a truck driver in the country?

2. In the end, Tereza knows she has reached her goals. What are her goals?

3. What is "kitsch?"

4. What causes Tereza to suspect the engineer was sent by the secret police?

5. Describe Simon's relationship with his mother.

6. When talking to his son, Simon, what is Tomas's attitude about the article he had written?

7. Does Tomas make a mistake by returning to Prague from Zurich?

8. Kundera writes, whenever a single political movement corners power, we find ourselves in the realm of totalitarian kitsch. What does he mean by the word "totalitarian?"

9. In Part 5, Chapter 17, what episode both amuses and horrifies Tomas, proving that he is as tired mentally as he is physically?

10. What does Franz realize at the end of his trip to Cambodia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Tereza and Sabina are the closest women in Tomas's life.

1. Compare and contrast the characters of Tereza and Sabina. How are they the same? How are they different?

2. What would have happened if Tomas and Tereza had not married and he would have kept both her and Sabina lovers? Use passages in the book to portray the relevance Sabina had in Tomas's and Tereza's life and whether it would have been beneficial for the couple for Sabina to remain in Tomas's life.

3. Should Tomas have pursued a long term relationship with Sabina rather than with Tereza? Cite passages from the book to show why Tomas may have found a more compatible person in Sabina.

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of the three options to write about:

1. The influence of women on the various characters: Tereza's mother on Tereza, Franz's mother on Franz, Tomas's wife on Tomas and Simon's mother on Simon.

2. The influence of communism on the various characters: Tomas, Sabina, Simon, Tereza.

3. The result of infidelity on Tereza, Tomas, Sabina, Franz and Marie-Claude.

Essay Topic 3

Kundera has an entire section about misunderstood words between Franz and Sabina.

1. Was misunderstandings of words what led to Franz's and Sabina's break-up or were they simply not meant to be together? Cite 3 examples that support your theory.

2. had Sabina and Franz really been in love, would there have been a misunderstanding of words? Cite examples to prove your theory.

3. In Franz's case, was there a misunderstanding of words or a misunderstanding of women? How did Franz's upbringing affect his personality? Cite 3 examples of how his upbringing influenced the relationships he ended up having with women.

(see the answer keys)

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