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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 is Noa's new name in Book Three, Chapter 5 for his life in Nagano?

2. At the end of Book Three, Chapter 8, what does Hansu tell Sunja that Noa does after Sunja leaves Noa's office?

3. What does Hana say she has been doing for work in Book Three, Chapter 15?

4. In Book Three, Chapter 2, what does Sunja say hearing Yumi's backstory?

5. What does Etsuko's daughter, Hana, tell her on the phone in Book Three, Chapter 9?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Why does Mozasu tell Yumi they can not move to America in Book Three, Chapter Two?

4. Why does Hansu care so much about Noa's education from the background in Book Two, Chapter 18?

5. What happens that shames Risa Imawura's family as described in Book Three, Chapter 5?

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

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

8. What does Yangjin say in her pent-up final thoughts to Sunja in Book Three, Chapter 12?

9. What case does Haruki go to investigate in Book Three, Chapter 7? What does Haruki learn when he meets the boy’s parents?

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

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?

Essay Topic 2

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 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.

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