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 Hana ask Solomon about when she calls him in Book Three, Chapter 15?

2. What do Solomon and Hana begin doing after school in Book Three, Chapter 14?

3. Who does Mozasu meet while he waits for Yumi in Book Two, Chapter 17?

4. What does Sunja find from the graveyard groundkeeper in Book Three, Chapter 21?

5. What does Yoseb tell Sunja not to do with Koh Hansu in Book One, Chapter 13?

Short Essay Questions

1. What causes Etsuko's divorce as described in Book Three, Chapter 9? How has this affected her relationship with her children?

2. Why does Solomon get fired from his job in Book Three, Chapter 19?

3. What leads Haruki to become a police officer as described in Book Two, Chapter 17? Who recommends him to join?

4. What does Kuroda-san lecture about the Jewish people in Daniel Deronda that Akiko reacts against in Book Two, Chapter 15?

5. What does Noa's letter to Sunja and the Baek family say Book Two, Chapter Twenty after he learns Hansu is his father?

6. Why is Mozasu promoted to foreman of Paradaisu Seven in Book Two, Chapter 16?

7. Why does Mozasu not want Solomon to take over the family business in Book Three, Chapter 21?

8. Why have Hana and Solomon begun to hang out in Book Three, Chapter 13? How does Hana think of Solomon?

9. What does Ayame find and experience at the park on the walk home from the bathhouse in Book Three, Chapter 6? What does she see and experience when she returns to the park a second time?

10. What does Hana tell Solomon in their final meeting in Book Three, Chapter 20?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do some research on the idea of "diaspora." Kim Changho returns to Korea because he longs to see his homeland. Noa eventually becomes a Japanese citizen and travels back to Korea. Meanwhile, the other members of the family are unable to get Japanese passports and can only have Korean passports, which are useless, and so they can not travel internationally or back to Korea. All of these events relate to longing for a homeland, diaspora, and the regulation of human bodies moving across geography. Use the concept of diaspora to focus on two characters in the novel and examine their connection to a homeland, their in-betweenness of identity and belonging, and how they navigate the policing of their bodies. How do they navigate heartache, pain, humiliation, and difficulties? Explain what diaspora is in relation to them.

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 theme of shame is prevalent throughout the novel Pachinko. When Sunja sleeps with Hansu, she brings shame upon herself and her family. Later in the novel, on the television show "Other Lands," a Japanese woman who has moved abroad says, "I have never been to Japan [...] but I hope wherever I am in life, I can be a good Japanese. I hope never to bring shame to my people" (419). Choose two characters and explore how shame shapes their lives. Where does this shame come from? What societal ideals or expectations hold up shame? Is it rational? How do characters find ways to absolve this pain?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,239 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample