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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. How long has the captain been a captain?

2. What is the ship approaching the crew's ship carrying?

3. What does the captain reflect to himself is the soul of discipline while walking aft on his watch?

4. Where does the captain find the ship's rope ladder?

5. What does the captain need to learn now that he is on board the ship?

Short Essay Questions

1. What strangeness is dominant in the mind of the captain in the story's early part?

2. What has contributed to the "pitiless obligation" under which the skipper of the Sephora operates?

3. What does the captain do after telling the crew to turn in without an anchor watch? Why is this significant?

4. What danger lies in taking the ship as close as possible to the islands the ship is approaching?

5. How does Legatt describe the man that he killed? What does this say about Legatt's character?

6. How does the captain describe the skipper at the beginning of part two? How does he feel about the skipper?

7. How does the stranger report his former companions treating him after the murder?

8. What is significant about the way the author ends the story?

9. How was the murder incited, as the stranger relates it?

10. What story does Legatt share with the captain once on board the ship? How does the captain react?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the story change once the crew knows of Legatt and his story? How does the author accentuate this change?

Essay Topic 2

The captain literally risks it all to protect Legatt, a man he hardly knows. What risks does he take? Specify the details of the actions/risks the captain takes and explain why he would take those risks for someone he barely knows.

Essay Topic 3

This story is written in the first person from the point of view of the ship's captain. What are the other points of view an author can use to tell a story? Identify and explain them. Also, explain how Joseph Conrad uses the first person point of view to help tell his story. How would the story have changed if he would have used another point of view?

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This section contains 1,073 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample