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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 Koh Hansu tell Sunja to be careful for in Book One, Chapter 4?

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

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

4. What does Pastor Yoo tell the sister in the dispute in Book One, Chapter 14?

5. Why does Tanaka-san say he will give Kyunghee half the meat she requested in Book One, Chapter 15?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Hansu tell Kim Changho about the Korean nationalist groups in Book Two, Chapter Nine?

2. What worries does Yangjin confide to Isak as they walk in Book One, Chapter 7?

3. What is Goro-san's character like and why is he so successful at Pachinko as described in Book Two, Chapter 12?

4. How do Hoonie's parents raise him in Book One, Chapter 1? Why do they not dote on him?

5. What figurative language does Sunja use to think about the stories Koh Hansu tells her in Book One, Chapter 5? Why does she try to store everything he tells her?

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

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

8. What things does Isak ask Sunja about marrying him in Book One, Chapter 9? Why does he ask these these?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sunja and Etsuko are two characters shown in the role of a mother in Pachinko. Etsuko thinks that, "being a mother was what defined her more than any other thing" (406), and for Sunja, motherhood sets in place the events of the novel with the conception of Noa. How does motherhood define each of their lives? How do these women think similarly or differently about their relationship to their children? Why do they think this way, according to the times they were raised in, and according to what their parents taught them? What purpose do they contribute to in the novel by showing different pictures of motherhood?

Essay Topic 2

Four generations of women are shown throughout Pachinko. From Yangjin, to Sunja and Kyunghee, to Yumi, Etsuko, and Ayame, and finally to Hana and Phoebe. What are liberties and abilities within each generation? How does a woman's role, or the role she can have, change over time? Choose two characters to compare and contrast how they live their lives according to the times. What historical changes allow a woman's life to be different from one generation or one experience to another? How are the choices of each character dependent or independent from the men in her life?

Essay Topic 3

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.

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