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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 many people do the Memory Police take away in the back of one of their trucks after the raid at the strip mall in Chapter 4?

2. How many objects are still within the drawers of the cabinet when R asks about them in Chapter 8?

3. It is revealed in Chapter 5 that the unnamed narrator's mother had received a letter from the Memory Police how many years back?

4. Near the end of Chapter 8, R detects the scent of what object within one of the empty drawers in the cabinet?

5. The narrator is perplexed by her new editor's question about what topic, since R had never posed the question to her?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the symbolism of the cabinet the unnamed narrator describes in relation to her mother in Chapter 1?

2. Discuss an instance when Ogawa uses a metaphor or simile to describe R's ability to hold onto memories of disappeared objects.

3. In Chapter 7, what claim does the old man make about the Memory Police while trying to reassure the narrator of her safety?

4. What type of document is presented within the text for the first, but not the last, time in Chapter 6?

5. Explain the first line of the novel, which states, "I sometimes wonder what was disappeared first---among all the things that have vanished from the island" (3).

6. What type of routine do the narrator and R fall into once R gets settled in his room in Chapter 11?

7. What particular aspect of the birds' disappearance bothers the narrator the most?

8. What do the black garbage bags symbolize in Chapter 2?

9. What information is revealed in Chapter 5 about the narrator's mother and her interactions with the Memory Police?

10. What does the old man do with the page of the old ferry log on which he and the narrator have written their plans for hiding R?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the significance of the final passages included at the end of The Memory Police.

Essay Topic 2

Trace the characterization arc of the unnamed narrator over the course of the novel The Memory Police. Discuss whether the unnamed narrator is a round or flat character and whether she is a static or dynamic character.

Essay Topic 3

How does Ogawa use sensory details in order to strengthen the text’s messages? Discuss at least two passages that include the use of sensory details and pull quotes from these passages to support your claim.

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