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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. In how many wrestling matches does Raza Hyder participate in order to restore his troops' morale?

2. What motto appears on Iskander's campaign posters?

3. What does Omar Khayyam take to eating while sitting alone in the attic of Raza Hyder's house?

4. Which military man arrives to arrest Iskander Harappa when the coup is pulled off?

5. Where is Iskander Harappa initially detained after the coup?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator include the anecdote about seeing a London performance of Danton's Death?

2. Why does the Pakistani man in London, referred to by the narrator at the beginning of Chapter 7, murder his own daughter?

3. How does Iskander Harappa rise to power?

4. What is the nature of the relationship between Omar Khayyam Shakil and Shahbanou?

5. What change takes place in Iskander Harappa at the age of 40, and why?

6. How does Raza Hyder restore the morale of the deflated Pakistani army?

7. How do the 18 shawls embroidered by Rani over the six years of home imprisonment depict the life of Iskander Harappa?

8. What ethereal conflict besets the mind of Raza Hyder during his presidency?

9. For what reasons does Arjumand Harappa develop an affection for Haroun Harappa?

10. How does Arjumand Harappa choose to remember her father?

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

Shame ends with an enormous, violent explosion. This explosion is very symbolic of the story as a whole. Without getting caught up too much in the details, explain how this symbolic explosion is a fitting end to the turmoil and conflict of the story. What various disturbances and struggles throughout the book are terminated by this explosion, both literally and as a symbol? How do the various characters and their actions contribute to the explosion's magnitude? How is the chain of events which leads up to the explosion started, and which characters are responsible for it?

Essay Topic 3

In a well-developed and thoughtful analytical essay, consider the character of Iskander Harappa. From millionaire playboy to political poster-boy and eventually hanging corpse, his life goes through many phases and affects many characters. What are his primary character traits? How do these character traits manifest themselves, i.e. in what actions? How does Iskander influence the lives of others? In what ways is his character significant to the primary themes of the story? In what ways is he related to Sufiya Zinobia? How does his interaction with Raza Hyder contribute to unacknowledged national shame?

(see the answer keys)

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