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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 video game is Eiji playing at the beginning of Chapter Three?

2. Who does Eiji fantasize knocking out with the item in his toolbox?

3. What errand does the attractive waitress leave to do?

4. To what does Daimon offer to treat Eiji?

5. What happens when Eiji asks for the file folder about his father?

Short Essay Questions

1. What information does Ryutaro Morino have about Eiji's father and how does he obtain it?

2. Why does Eiji decapitate the statue of the thunder god in his village shrine?

3. Describe what happens to Eiji's twin sister, Anju, shortly after the twins turn eleven and how Eiji is affected by the incident.

4. Who is Buntaro and what is Eiji's relationship with him like?

5. Why does Eiji think Miriam can lead him to his father and how does he pursue his father through her?

6. What does Eiji's helping Daimon after the yakuza injure Daimon indicate about Eiji's character?

7. Describe Eiji's coworkers at Ueno Station and his relationships with them.

8. How does Morino trick Eiji with his father's photo in Chapter Four?

9. Who does Eiji initially think "father" is in Chapter Four, and who does "father" eventually turn out to be?

10. What factors make Eiji vulnerable to exploitation by Daimon?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Eiji's relationship with Anju. What is the relationship like during Anju's life and what is it like once she is dead? What helps Eiji finally accept her death?

Essay Topic 2

At the beginning of the novel, Eiji is a procrastinator and daydreamer, and spends more time in fantasy and illusion than in reality. Discuss Eiji's character growth over the course of the novel, how he differs at the end of the novel from how he is at the beginning, and what helps facilitate any change in him.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the John Lennon song Number Nine Dream to the novel. What does John Lennon tell Eiji in his dream that the song means? How do Lennon's references to ghosts and loneliness relate to Eiji's life? What do you think the author is trying to say through the use of the song in the novel's title and in the dream sequence?

(see the answer keys)

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