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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 Takano-san employ Noa as in Book Three, Chapter 1?

2. What does Mozasu tell Haruki about his schoolbook in Book Two, Chapter 7?

3. What do the parents of the suicide case in Book Two, Chapter 7 show Haruki?

4. What does Yangjin tell Sunja on her deathbed in Book Three, Chapter 12?

5. What does Akiko say to Noa about Hansu in Book Two, Chapter 19?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How are the women in Phoebe's family different than in Solomon's family as described in Book Three, Chapter 18? Why is this the case?

4. How does Mozasu remember experiencing Yumi's funeral in Book Three, Chapter 3?

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

6. How does Sunja feel seeing Hansu in the kitchen with her in Book Three, Chapter 4?

7. What does Kazu explain to Solomon as a "shit tax" in Book Three, Chapter 17?

8. How does Solomon get his name as told in Book Three, Chapter 10?

9. Why does Phoebe find it difficult to live in Japan as described in Book Three, Chapter 16?

10. What does Etsuko think about her role as a mother in Book Three, Chapter 10?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the beginning of Pachinko, Hoonie's parents raise him according to the ideal that, "a spoiled son did more harm to the family than a dead one" (6). Later, we see characters such as Sunja and Hansu thinking and speaking about how their parents treated them. We see Noa commit suicide based on his parentage. How does the way different parents raise their children affect the way these children represent their families and carry out their lives? How do they raise their children as a result? Use at least two characters to develop an argument. Finally, does what Hoonie's parents use for raising their son hold true for the rest of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

At the beginning of Pachinko, the first sentence says, "History has failed us, but no matter" (5). Who is this "us"? How have they been "failed" by history? Who constructed this history that failed them? Develop an answer using four examples drawn from the novel.

Essay Topic 3

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.

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