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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. Why does the narrator read Nitin's diary?

2. Why does Master Mohan kill himself?

3. How does Master Mohan kill himself?

4. The narrator doesn't understand how a ___ could drive Nitin insane.

5. For some time, the narrator feels ________ by the monk's story.

Short Essay Questions

1. Are the father's teachings nonsensical?

2. What is the Vano ritual of purging a possession and how does it work?

3. To her parents, what are the daughter's shortcomings?

4. What is India's perception of the West? The West of India?

5. What is the narrator's primary concern in Chapter 8?

6. Why does the narrator take the job at the guesthouse?

7. Why does Dr. Mitra think the narrator has contracted the "Indian disease" of making everything holy?

8. Why is the narrator hesitant to allow the elderly woman to stay at the guesthouse? What does her situation resemble?

9. What is Shankar's interest in the Narmada?

10. Why does Master Mohan kill himself?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the use of music around the Narmada in "A River Sutra".

Essay Topic 2

Discuss "immortality" in "A River Sutra". What role does it have? Which characters does it affect, and in what ways? Do all characters share the same beliefs about immortality? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the narrator's mental limits: what he understands and what disturbs him. Discuss what we are able to learn about the world in "A River Sutra" through his successes and shortcomings.

(see the answer keys)

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