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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 Nadège’s limp affect Julius, when he joins her on a trip to the immigrant detention facility?

2. What does Julius say he used to test the depth of the well at the house he grew up in in Nigeria?

3. How does Julius say his field of study compares to other fields?

4. What does Julius notice about people’s clothing, as he takes the subway around the city?

5. What caused Saidu to flee his country?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Julius’ relationship with his oma like?

2. What is the feeling Julius wakes up from his dream with, in the beginning of Chapter 10, in his first days in Brussels?

3. What is it about Coca-Cola that the younger Julius found so appealing?

4. What does Nadège’s limp make Julius think about, and what does it make him see about Nadège?

5. What is the style of the opening pages of Open City, and what kind of expectation do they set up in the reader?

6. What do we know about Julius’ relationships, in this first chapter?

7. How does the incident in which Musibau accused Julius of stealing his paper ultimately work in Julius’ favor?

8. Who is V. and what is her relationship with Julius?

9. How does Julius say he ended up at the Nigerian Military School, when his father was not a soldier?

10. How does Julius describe his encounter with the Czechoslovakian tourist he meets in the café?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 2

Evaluate your own reading of Open City—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 3

The character of Julius spends a great deal of time “reading” the external world of the city, telling what stories he knows about neighborhoods and historical figures and events—but what strategies does Julius use, for finding the internal experience of people, and getting to know the deeper life of individuals? What role does loneliness play, in Julius’ world? How much space does he have for other people? Does he welcome them in, or keep them out? What clues does Teju Cole give us about the character’s psychology on this question?

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