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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 Omar strictly limit his sleep at night?

2. What is the name of Bilquis' father's theater?

3. What would happen to a realistic book about Pakistan, according to the narrator?

4. What word best describes Omar's feeling towards life?

5. What does the narrator say is Sufiya Zinobia's relation to Omar?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Raza Hyder and Maulana Dawood come to trust one another immediately?

2. Why is Raza Hyder's military victory so greatly lauded throughout Pakistan?

3. What are the circumstances surrounding the death of Mistri Yakoob Balloch?

4. What characterizes Farah Zoroaster's life in Q after returning from her forced marriage to Eduardo Rodrigues?

5. How does Sindbad Mengal meet his fate?

6. What characterizes Bilquis' reaction to the Loo?

7. What sort of gossip floats around Farah Zoroaster and Eduardo Rodrigues?

8. How does Omar Khayyam describe himself to Iskander Harappa, as described at the end of Chapter 1?

9. Why are the children of the British colonials sent back to England after the age of eight to continue their educations?

10. How is Bilquis' father's business ruined?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As a prominent female figure, Bilquis Hyder, always first hand to experience instability, reveals much about the position of women in Pakistani society as it is portrayed in Shame. How do the various positions into which Bilquis is put and the various attitudes she adopts throughout her life demonstrate the role of Pakistani women? What is significant about her physical appearance? What is significant about the manner in which she clothes herself throughout the story? What is significant about the inverted manner in which she is gradually clothed throughout her married life? What is her overall significance to the story?

Essay Topic 2

In a carefully developed essay, discuss the importance of catharsis of emotions and how the neglect of catharsis leads to calamity, as is demonstrated in Shame. What is catharsis? Why is it important? What happens when emotions are not acknowledged? What happens to the reactions that ought to occur? Where do they go? How do they transfer from one person to another?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the story, there are many actions and sorts of behaviors that ought to cause shame in their actors and do cause shame in Sufiya Zinobia. These causes are usually not explicitly named as such. Thus, in a carefully developed analytical essay, present the primary causes of shame throughout the story and explain their significance to the major themes of the story:

1) Political instability;

2) The oppression of women;

3) Ignoring emotions and its consequences.

(see the answer keys)

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