Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. How does Julius say his father’s people reacted to Julius’ father’s death?
2. How much does Julius say he carries around his patients’ experiences and stories?
3. How does Julius characterize Brussels’ strategy for surviving the second world war?
4. What effect does Julius say his curtness has on the waitress who brings him coffee in Grand Sablon?
5. How does Julius characterize Saidu’s narrative?
Short Essay Questions
1. What theme emerges in the clothing Julius notices on the people all around him in his wanderings through the city at the beginning of Chapter 4?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Teju Cole’s internal, peripatetic style in Open City?
3. What does Julius say his relationship with his mother is like?
4. What are Julius’ thoughts on the weather and global warming?
5. How does Farouq surprise Julius?
6. What stereotype does Dr. Maillotte, the woman who sits next to Julius on the plane to Brussels, hold about Nigerians, and how does Julius respond to her cast-typing?
7. What does Nadège’s limp make Julius think about, and what does it make him see about Nadège?
8. What made the detained immigrant Saidu leave Liberia?
9. How does Julius describe his encounter with the Czechoslovakian tourist he meets in the café?
10. What do we know about Julius’ relationships, in this first chapter?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
How does Julius grow or change over the course of the novel? What is he like at the start of the novel, and what is he like at the end? What are the main events that may have changed him? How do you account for the changes he undergoes? Or, how do you account for his lack of change?
Essay Topic 2
Is this a novel with a moral center and a single cluster of fixations buried in a welter of urban impressions? Or is it a scattered inventory of experiences that never really define a central set of concerns in the author’s life? Is this a book about a man’s psychology, or a book about a man’s views of New York City?
Essay Topic 3
Would you recommend Open City to a friend? What kind of friend would you recommend Open City to? What kind of friend would you not recommend this book to? What does this distinction tell you about the qualities of the novel itself? What does it tell you about your own critical values?
|
This section contains 1,174 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
