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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. The narrator's neighbors who are a couple in their thirties have what kind of pet?

2. Which character gives a music box as a birthday gift in Chapter 16?

3. Which character claims that an experience with a music box alerted them to their disappearance immunity?

4. What position does the narrator take within the company when she gets a new job in Chapter 20?

5. Which character first notices that there are disappeared objects inside sculptures created by the narrator's mother?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way do the narrator and R become more intimate over the course of his period of hiding?

2. What alarming event happens to the old man in Chapter 13?

3. To what object is the narrator referring when she states in Chapter 19, "Never had I seen anything burn as brightly" (183)?

4. In what way does the theme of surveillance appear within Chapter 18, in relation to the bond between R and the narrator?

5. Which of the novel's symbols is revisited again within Chapter 22, echoing its earlier appearance in Chapter 5?

6. What gift does R bestow upon the old man in Chapter 16 and what hopes does R have for the present?

7. What illogical conclusion does the narrator come to about R after their first sexual encounter, though she knows quite well how illogical it is?

8. In Chapter 14, the old man reports to the narrator that the Memory Police had been interested in what subject?

9. Who comes to stay with the narrator in Chapter 19 and why?

10. How does the theme of courage arise within Chapter 13 of The Memory Police?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Choose an object from The Memory Police, such as the cabinet, the birdcages, the garbage bags, or some other symbolic object and discuss its overall meaning and its connection to themes within the text.

Essay Topic 2

How does Ogawa’s use of the first person point of view serve the purposes of the text? Discuss how Ogawa’s choice of point of view helps to advance the treatment of at least three particular themes within the text.

Essay Topic 3

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

(see the answer keys)

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