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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 Dr. Aziz find and pick up that belongs to Adela Quested after leaving the caves?

2. What is part of purdah?

3. After talking to Mrs. Moore and discussing Mr. Callendar, Dr. Aziz decides that she is_____.

4. Who is invited to the caves?

5. How does Adela react in response to offending Aziz?

Short Essay Questions

1. How likely is it that Adela Quested will listen to Ronny Heaslop's demands that she not see Indians?

2. How does Cyril Fielding react to the discovery of the letter to the brothel owner?

3. Why is Major Callendar upset at Dr. Aziz?

4. Why does Mrs. Moore go back to England?

5. What is Aziz's reaction to Adela Quested's question before they enter the caves?

6. What is the significance of the Mohurram holiday?

7. Describe Cyril Fielding's thoughts on atheism.

8. How do the plans to go to the cave get rekindled?

9. What role does the climate play within the novel?

10. What does Mrs. Moore notice regarding Ronny Heaslop's response to Cousin Kate?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the book, Aziz regularly lies or misrepresents the facts. When he invites Fielding's guests to his house, he knows he cannot entertain them there. Later he tells Adela that she can come and visit his wife, but his wife is dead. Why do you think Forester chooses to represent this Indian character in this way? Does this characteristic take away from Aziz's likability as the main character of the book? Does it affect how you see the trial in the book?

Essay Topic 2

Fielding is an educator in the book. What role does education play in the society of The Passage to India? Which characters welcome and which resist education?

Essay Topic 3

In earlier versions of the book, Forster was much more explicit in the sexual aspects of the assault, and the strap of the field glasses was used to strangle Adela. In one version, she used the glasses as a weapon to free herself from her attacker. By the time Forster had revised the book for publication, the attack is much more ambiguous, tentative, and tenuous. What effect do you think Forster's edits have on the plot of the book? How would the plot of the book be different if he had not made these changes?

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