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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 Molloy characterize the atmosphere he made his way through?

2. What time of day does Molloy say he prefers?

3. What does Molloy say is easier for him at the seashore?

4. What does Molloy say life seems to be made up of?

5. With whom does Molloy describe a sexual act?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Molloy’s disability affect him?

2. What is the one thing that Molloy says torments him?

3. What is Molloy’s system for sucking stones?

4. How does Molloy say he and his mother refer to each other?

5. What is it that Molloy finds noxious about his mother?

6. How does Molloy say he chooses what to write?

7. What offer does Lousse make to Molloy?

8. What is Molloy’s relationship with death like?

9. What does Molloy say keeps him going?

10. How long was Molloy on the road before he met Lousse, and how long did he stay with Lousse?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the narrator of Molloy know things, and what complicates the act or the sensation of knowing? What does it mean to him, to know or not know? What kind of world does he live in, where knowing is subject to so many uncertainties?

Essay Topic 2

Many of Molloy’s insights have to do with living, but they also have to do with writing, and we cannot forget that the character who opens the book is a writer, that someone comes to give him money for his pages. What does Molloy tell us about the writing process, or about Beckett’s writing process? What is writing supposed to do? What does it entail? What is the outcome of writing meant to be? How is it similar to and different from living?

Essay Topic 3

What are the advantages and disadvantages of living the way Molloy lives, naïve, ignorant, alert, self-critical? What does Beckett tell us about our own lives, by writing such an odd character? Is he an everyman, or a freak? Is he telling us important things we ought to know about ourselves, or is he warning us against the intellectual and spiritual processes that led him to be the person he is? Is he just an oddity, or a philosophically serious character, showing us something we do not see often?

(see the answer keys)

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