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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 Julius characterize the city when he comes out of the Wall Street subway stop?

2. What issue is remarkably absent from Julius, Farouq and Khalil’s discussion of Middle East politics?

3. What is it that Farouq spends a good deal of time and thought trying to protect, intellectually?

4. What does Dr. Maillotte tell Julius she thinks about Nigerians?

5. What does Dr. Maillotte tell Julius she thinks about Ghanaians?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Julius say his relationship with his mother is like?

4. What are Julius’ thoughts on the weather and global warming?

5. What importance does Heliopolis hold, in the conversation between Julius and Dr. Maillotte?

6. What kind of person does Julius show himself to be in the taxi he gets home from American Folk Art Museum?

7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Teju Cole’s internal, peripatetic style in Open City?

8. What memory does the rain spur in Julius’ trip to Brussels?

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

10. What made the detained immigrant Saidu leave Liberia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Teju Cole’s novel resolve the tension between the idea that difference should be assimilated and the idea that cultural differences should be preserved and protected from assimilation? How does the novel address and resolve this question? How does Julius himself experience the tension between these positions? How does he himself resolve this tension?

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

Teju Cole’s novel Open City was published in 2011. How does it apply to today’s political and artistic world? What parts feel dated? What parts feel contemporary? What current cultural discussions can Open City contribute to? What does the novel say, in those conversations?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,200 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample