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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 does Sunja think when she sees Yangjin for the first time since Yeongdo in Book Two, Chapter 7?

2. Why does Mozasu find school difficult in Book Two, Chapter 10?

3. Why does Isak travel in spite of his mother and doctor not approving as described in Book One, Chapter 7?

4. What does Yangjin think happened to Dokhee and Bokhee in Book Two, Chapter 10?

5. What does Yoseb tell Hansu he knows in Book Two, Chapter 8?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Isak think about when he realizes he is sick with tuberculosis at the end of Book One, Chapter 3?

2. Where and why are Pastor Yoo, Sexton Hu, and Isak arrested as described in Book Two, Chapter 2?

3. How has the war helped Tamaguchi? What does he think about the war continuing in Book Two, Chapter 7?

4. What does Yoseb think of the Japanese war in China in Book Two, Chapter 3? How does the way he thinks about it connect with the larger philosophy of Korean people?

5. From Book One, Chapter 8, what happens in the Book of Hosea in the Bible and why?

6. Why do the Chung brothers say that Japan will never conquer China in Book One, Chapter 2? Why do they support China?

7. How is Mozasu becoming a "bad Korean"in Book Two, Chapter 10? What does he think about this?

8. What are Yoseb and Hansu's plans for the Baek family in Book Two, Chapter 8? How are they different?

9. Why is Sunja so determined to pay off Yoseb’s debt in Book One, Chapter 16?

10. In Book Two, Chapter 5, why does Isak tell Noa he must still go to school even though Isak is dying?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

When Noa writes the Baek family after finding out Hansu is his father, Yoseb thinks, "he could understand the boy's anger, but he wanted another chance to talk to him, to tell Noa that a man must learn to forgive---to know what is important, that to live without forgiveness was a ind of death with breathing and movement" (318-19).

Choose at least two examples of characters either asking for, or have already asked for, forgiveness. How do their choices to forgive or not to forgive affect their lives and mental outlooks? Who asks for forgiveness and why? For the person who is asked for forgiveness, why or why not do they choose to forgive? Compare these examples to examine how forgiveness is a theme in the novel.

Essay Topic 2

How is Pachinko arranged as a whole novel? Examine the structure of Pachinko in the first section, the second section, and the third section. Why is the novel divided in this way? What does each section say on its own, as an individual book? What is the message of the three sections put together overall? Consider the titles of each section as well as the epigraphs. What does the structure of the novel and the use of three sections say about the story as a whole? Use textual evidence to support your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Jan the coalman says the aristocratic Koreans lost Korea for everyone else. Kim Changho leaves Japan to go to Korea and join the liberation movement. Phoebe is upset when in Japan, people ask her if she is chosenjin or kankokujin (441). Do outside research about the historical events happening in Korea over the length of the novel. Use at least three sources. Then use this research to explain in at least two sections what is happening in the novel at parts where political movements and terms are mentioned, but not fully explained. How does what a character says or think connect back to the larger historical events?

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