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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. What country is mentioned as invading Afghanistan at the beginning of Chapter 2?

2. Of what is Bilquis habitually afraid?

3. Who accompanies Omar's rescuer from the religious zealots?

4. Which of the following is one of Farah Zoroaster's nicknames?

5. For how long are the gates of the Shakil house sealed?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What happens to the real names of the three sisters, and by what names are they instead called?

3. How is Omar initially greeted upon his exiting Nishapur?

4. How does Bilquis come to be accepted as a member of the Hyder family?

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

6. Briefly describe why the narrator insists that his novel is not about a real Pakistan, and what would happen to (the story, not the actual book) it if it were.

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

8. Why is Raza Hyder sent to the Needle Valley?

9. How does Raza Hyder describe his courtship of Bilquis?

10. What vice does Omar discern in Farah immediately before hypnotizing her, and how?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Various actions and statements made by the characters throughout the story support the notion that in Pakistan, as portrayed in Shame, males are in every way superior to females. Analyze, in a well-developed essay, this societal perspective. Who holds this view? Who objects to it? In what ways does this view, as espoused implicitly or explicitly by various characters, impact the story? What is the significance of this view to the main themes and the morals promoted within them as presented throughout the story of Shame?

Essay Topic 2

A major theme of the story is the overall instability of Pakistani society as it is represented. This overall instability is reflected in various ways, both macrocosmic (in nature) and microcosmic (in individuals). Examine these reflections in a considerate essay. What are the macrocosmic reflections of instability? What are the microcosmic reflections? Is the overall situation of instability constructed by the individual situations of instability? If so, how? Is the country unstable just as it is explicitly portrayed, or in any other fashions? What individual decisions and actions create the ostensible aspects of the country's instability?

Essay Topic 3

Write a thoughtful analytical essay on the character of Rani Humayun Harappa. As one of the prominent female characters in the story, her actions and character are very important for discerning the significance of the story. In what ways is Rani significant? How does she impact the plot of the story, if at all? What is the significance of her impact, if she has any, and even if she does not? What particular actions demonstrate to the reader the character of Rani? Is she a virtuous character? Defend your answers with explicit references to the text.

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