1. How are Mr. Ghoni's statements about "Daisy Miller" in Part 3, Chapter 15, similar to Mr. Nyazi's statements in Part 3, Chapters 17 and 18, about "The Great Gatsby"?

2. What does Nafisi do during her early years as a professor at the University of Tehran?

3. How does Nafisi react to the increase in protests, demonstrations, and violence associated with the revolution?

4. Nafisi first mentions the magician in Part 1, Chapter 10. Why does she wait until Part 2, Chapter 20, to describe him more fully?

5. Why is Nafisi conflicted about returning to full-time teaching?

6. What does it mean to be complicit in one's own crimes?

7. In Part 3, Chapter 14, why does Nafisi describe her students in such detail?

8. What are the similarities between Sanaz's experience in jail and the experience of Cincinnatus in "Invitation to a Beheading"? What are the differences between their experiences?

9. Why does the magician tell Nafisi she should return to teaching?

10. Why does the magician tell Nafisi to stop blaming the Islamic Republic for all her problems?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Several times Nafisi refers to the individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Write an essay that focuses on one of those rights. How is that right viewed by the Islamist Iranian Republic? How is that right portrayed in the literature Nafisi teaches? What does Nafisi do to assert her rights?

Essay Topic 2

"Reading Lolita in Tehran" is not told chronologically. The use of flashbacks and the telling of the story in segmented historical pieces distributed across multiple sections determines the shape for the novel. How does the element of time shape the reader's understanding of the memoir's major points? How does the element of time shape the reader's understanding of the characters Nafisi develops?

Essay Topic 3

In his "Letter from the Birmingham Jail (April 1963)," Martin Luther King, Jr. responded to critics who called him an extremist by pointing out examples of what he called extremist behavior by famous political and religious figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Jesus. King challenged the notion that "extremist" was a negative behavior, and stated that "the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be."

Choose 3 of the characters listed below. Provide examples of how they are portrayed as extremists in the book. Would the character have the same perspective on their behavior as the author? If not, would the character see himself or herself as an extremist? Would they consider being an extremist to be a positive or a negative characteristic?

~ Nafisi

~ The magician

~ Mr. Bahri

~ Mr. Nyazi

~ The Iranian Government

~ Nafisi's students in the study group

(see the answer keys)

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