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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. For what does Dan listen?

2. What is one thing the Advaita Vendanta teach?

3. What does Sachi ask her baby brother?

4. Simply put, what are Dan's instructions when he gets to Makapuu Beach?

5. What is a fakir?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the phrase that Ruth uses that catches Dan's attention and how would you characterize their encounter?

2. What does Mama Chia tell Dan after waking him from sleeping for 36 hours, and what do you think she means?

3. Dan says he would trade enlightenment for one glass of "pure, cool, quenching water." What do you think this says about the human condition?

4. Why does Dan decide to stop over in Hawaii and what do you think is the reason for his layover?

5. What is Dan's ultimate conclusion about his time in India?

6. How does Dan feel about his personal connection to India?

7. What do you think about what Mama Chia says about suffering?

8. What is the irony of Dan's situation out on the vast Pacific Ocean?

9. Dan falls asleep, which could be what is called in literary terms, a "narrative contrivance." What do you think that means in context of this story and Dan falling asleep?

10. What is the island of Molokai and why is it appropriate that Dan wash up on its shore?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

While Millman is in India, he does many of the things Westerners seems to do when they are searching in the Near East for "enlightenment." Discuss the following:

What are some of the activities in which Dan participates in his travels in India?

Why do you think the things Dan does in India do not seem to bring him the results for which he is hoping?

Why do you think many Westerners see India/Nepal/Tibet as places where they can find a spiritual path/enlightenment?

Essay Topic 2

Besides being a retired banker, Mama Chia is also a midwife, who is busy bringing a new life into the world while Dan is recuperating from exposure and dehydration. Discuss one of the following:

What are the parallels between Dan's surfboard experience and Mama Chia bringing a new baby into the world?

Discuss the seeming paradox that Mama Chia works for and retires from a bank and is also a shaman and midwife.

What do you think Dan needs to birth?

Essay Topic 3

Mama Chia tells about her friend, Fuji, whose love is photography, who after 30 years loses everything in a fire, but having learned to see life as beauty and harmony, gets over the loss. Discuss the following:

What losses has Dan suffered that would be difficult to let go of?

Often when there is a loss, a gain fills the void. What does Dan gain that fills any loss he suffers?

Have you had a time when you suffered what seems to be an unbearable loss and gained something precious in its place. Explain.

How have you dealt with one significant loss in your life?

(see the answer keys)

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