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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 Goro's first clothing order for Mozasu allow Totoyama to do in Book Two, Chapter 12?

2. What does Kyunghee do at the restaurant to avoid upsetting Yoseb in Book Two, Chapter 3?

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

4. Why does Isak feel spoken to by the Lord to marry Sunja in Book One, Chapter 8?

5. What does Pastor Shin want Sunja to do in Book One, Chapter 10?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Sunja deal with Mozasu's fighting in Book Two, Chapter 11?

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

3. 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?

4. How does the novel describe Ikaino in Book One, Chapter 12?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout Pachinko, we see many side characters who are named and given a back story even if they are only mentioned once. Choose four of these characters and develop a thesis in response to the following questions: how does the addition of side characters contribute to the larger story of Pachinko? What effect is created by having these side characters fleshed out in the novel? Why is it important to have them in the novel in addition to the main characters?

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

At the end of the novel, David Copperfield is brought up as Noa's favorite novel. Why does he like this particular book? Choose another example of intertexuality in the book (such as the Bible, the book of "Hosea, "Daniel Deronda," the epigraphs at the beginning of each book). How do these stories map out and connect to the story in the novel? Do some background research and pull excerpts from the intertextual sources to support its connection to Pachinko. How does having multiple examples of intertextuality expand different sections of the text?

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