View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Yangin go to get after Isak and Sunja’s marriage ceremony in Book One, Chapter 10?

2. What vulgar thing does Yoseb say to shame Sunja when he finds out she has paid his debts in Book One, Chapter 17?

3. What does Kim say about his politics to Kyunghee in Book Two, Chapter 9?

4. In Book Two, Chapter 3, how much does Kim Changho say he will pay to each of the women?

5. What does Koh Hansu tell Sunja to be careful for in Book One, Chapter 4?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the propaganda in the newspapers Yoseb reads in Book Two, Chapter 1?

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

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

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

5. Why does Hansu tell Sunja she must leave Osaka in Book Two, Chapter 6? What does he tell her she must do?

6. 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?

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

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

9. What does the ajumma tell Sunja about a women's life and the man she will marry in Chapter Three?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

On Yangjin's deathbed, the following passage takes place:

"Go-saeng, Yangjin said out loud, "A woman's lot is to suffer."

"Yes, go-saeng," Kyunghee nodded, repeating the word for suffering.

All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from the other women, that they must suffer---suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother--die suffering. Go-saeng---the word made her sick. What else was there besides this. She had suffered to create a better life for Noa, and yet it was not enough. Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she'd drunk like water? In the end, he had refused to suffer the conditions of his birth. Did mother's fail by not telling their sons that suffering would come?" (420).

How in this passage and elsewhere is suffering different for women than it is from men? How are men allowed to live differently than women? And when Sunja thinks about teaching Noa to deal with suffering as she has, how is the way she has learned to handle the world different than the way he has learned? Analyze this passage, and then use two other examples in the text to support a claim.

Essay Topic 2

Both Yoseb and Isak begin wanting to support their families, and then are in some way injured or kept from being able to provide. What are each of these men's outlook on life in the beginning of the novel? And then with the events that happen to them, how does their outlook on life change or stay the same? What keeps their character in place? Or what pushes them to snap? Compare and contrast their experiences, and create a thesis answering what leads them to act differently from one another when there are divergences.

Essay Topic 3

The history of the Christian church in Japan carries throughout the novel. How does faith in Christianity shape the lives of the characters? Why is Christianity seen as such a threat in the beginning of the novel? How do those who do not follow Christianity understand it? Has the understanding of Christianity in the larger society change from the beginning to the end of the novel? Use at least three textual sources and two outside sources to develop a picture of faith and examine how it relates to the events of the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,241 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample