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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 happened to the intellectual journals the protagonist sent to his father?

2. What is the narrator's mother's name?

3. What is the name of the narrator's sister?

4. What is the psychiatrist's name to whom the narrator speaks?

5. What is the narrator's sister's married name?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Alex remark about his father's bowel movements in Chapter 4?

2. What story does Alex tell about his mother and lobster?

3. How did the narrator's father feel about his job? How did he express his feelings to his family?

4. Who does the main character think all of his teachers are in disguise? Why?

5. Who is the shikse who came to the young Alex's family's home? Why?

6. What does the narrator suspect about the shikse who came to his family's house? Why?

7. What does Alex say his parents complain about regarding his sister and her husband in Chapter 4?

8. What are the protagonist's principle memories of his father from early childhood?

9. What frustration does the narrator express in Chapter 4 about his job and his parents' view of it?

10. What story does the narrator tell about Ronald Nimkin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the story of The Monkey. How does the timeline of actual events differ with the narrative of the protagonist? What does this inform us of Alex's character?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the Oedipus Complex as it applies to the main character of Portnoy's Complaint. What emotions and experiences support this theme?

Essay Topic 3

What are the predominant metaphors in Portnoy's Complaint? How does the author "set up" these metaphors? How do these major metaphors recur in the text? Define "metaphor" in your answer.

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