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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 does the narrator say to count a generation in years?

2. Of what does Ambrose warn Magda when he asks her to go through the funhouse with him?

3. What was inked into the wood on the cigar box where the label is peeled away?

4. What is wrong with the windows of the fortune telling machine?

5. What does Ambrose realize when he is the first person through the tumble-barrel room?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ambrose think he sees when he steps into the mirror room in the Funhouse?

2. Who does Ambrose think will overhear him telling stories while lost in the Funhouse?

3. What does Peter do after giving up on his and his Uncle Karl’s play at the pool?

4. What does Ambrose think about when he is in the mirror room of the Funhouse, and what does Ambrose hear?

5. Why does the family stay out of the ocean, and what do they do instead of swimming in the ocean?

6. What was often done in 19th Century fiction to make a work appear real?

7. How does Ambrose feel about the Funhouse on the way home, and what does Uncle Karl do about the whole affair?

8. What gives Ambrose hope that he will find the exit to the Funhouse?

9. What is the truth about Magda’s question that Ambrose does not tell her?

10. What kind of machines in the arcade are broken, and why are they sitting there broken?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose two significant symbols and trace and analyze their appearance in Lost in the Funhouse. Are these universal symbols that would have the same meaning in any culture? What other symbols could portray the same idea? Why do you think Barth chooses the symbols he does? Consider symbols such as the Towers, Fat May, the Funhouse, and the oil in the ocean.

Essay Topic 2

Humor and jokes are imbedded throughout the text of Lost in the Funhouse. Discuss how Barth uses humor to offset the depression and loneliness that actually pervades Ambrose’s thoughts. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Trace and analyze the theme of consciousness in Lost in the Funhouse. Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to be aware of themselves and conscious of how they relate to the world? How is Ambrose’s consciousness shown in the funhouse? How does Ambrose’s consciousness compare to other characters’ consciousness?

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