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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 does the narrator explain the presence of a pile of dirty dishes in her sink in Chapter 17?

2. Before the narrator visits the headquarters of the Memory Police in Chapter 13, she tells R, "I suppose all I can do is" (100) take what action?

3. Which character is taken by the Memory Police in Chapter 13?

4. What objects are disappeared in Chapter 15?

5. What object seems to the narrator in Chapter 18 to be her "only ticket" for "admittance to the hidden room below [her]" (170)?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. For what reason does the narrator get particularly nervous when the Memory Police are searching her writing desk?

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

4. Which character does the narrator NOT consult about her decision to investigate the old man's disappearance and why?

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

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

7. What objects are covering "every available space" (101) within the old theater now used as the Memory Police headquarters?

8. What object does R beg the narrator not to burn in Chapter 12 and what is her reaction?

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

10. In what way is the motif of sound used to inspire feelings of horror and suspense in the reader at the end of Chapter 16?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the ways in which the themes of eccentricity and conformity appear within Ogawa’s novel The Memory Police. What message is Ogawa sending about these two themes over the course of the narrative?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Discuss Ogawa’s use of metaphor, simile, imagery, and other literary devices as a means to send particular thematic messages within the narrative of The Memory Police.

(see the answer keys)

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