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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. Which of the following statements does not describe Daimon?

2. What mark identifies someone as a yakuza man or mobster?

3. With whom does Daimon seem to have tension at the Queen of Spades?

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

5. What does Eiji do when he comes to Ai Imajo's assistance in Chapter Three?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Eiji escape death at the end of Chapter Four?

2. What is the yakuza and how is Daimon tied to the organization?

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

4. What happens to Mr. Aoyama in Chapter Two?

5. What rumors has Anju overheard about her mother?

6. Describe Eiji's habit of nicknaming people.

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

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

9. Why do Donkey and Dowager call the waitress with the perfect neck a "hand cream model", and what does the depiction of the girl's hands in Chapter One really indicate?

10. What is the significance of the third person viewpoint in the scenes describing Eiji's first drug experience and his experience with Velvet?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the following father and son relationships: Eiji and his father, Eiji's father and grandfather, and Daimon and his father. Do any of these relationships seem happy? What cultural events or conflicts might some of these relationships reflect? Cite examples from the text to support your arguments.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how the fictional manuscript about Goatwriter that Eiji finds and reads in Chapter Five is an allegory of Eiji's own experiences. Cite examples from the text to support your arguments.

(see the answer keys)

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