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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. Who is the woman whom the narrator has a longer affair with than most?

2. What is the name of the company for whom the narrator's father works?

3. What does the narrator's father hold the wrong way?

4. What does the narrator have a difficult time believing in?

5. What is the name of the narrator's father's coworker who bamboozled his mother into eating lobster?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does the narrator's father urge him to take lessons in? Why?

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

4. Who does the narrator's father hold up as someone to emulate? Why?

5. About what do the narrator's parents coddle him regarding his knee in Chapter 4?

6. What does the narrator speak of regarding his humiliations with his mother as a child in Chapter 3?

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

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

9. What is Chapter 2 primarily about?

10. What were the narrator's father's ambitions for him growing up?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does the narrator say regarding the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud? Why is this relevant to the novel? What chapter is named after the writings of Freud? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of Guilt/Shame in the novel. How does this relate to the narrator's feelings of rebellion? Where does this emotion resonate the most in the narrator? How does this affect his actions in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role of the character of Dr. Spielvogel in the novel. What literary device does this character embody?

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