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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 many shawls does Rani embroider during her house arrest?

2. What myth does the narrator suggest to replace the Islamic fundamentalist myth rammed down the people's throats by Raza Hyder?

3. How does General Raddi arrest Haroun Harappa and his terrorists without firing a shot?

4. What is the name of General Raza Hyder's adjutant in the new capital?

5. How does the young man who helped inspire the character of Sufiya Zinobia expire?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Omar and Raza escape the residence of the C-in-C and the house arrest?

2. What becomes of Bilquis in her latter years?

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

4. How does Iskander Harappa rise to power?

5. How do Raza and Omar disagree when it comes to dealing with Sufiya Zinobia's condition?

6. Why, in the opinion of Omar Khayyam Shakil, does Sufiya Zinobia become intensely ill?

7. How is the crazed killing spree of Sufiya Zinobia discovered?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In a well-structured essay, analyze the actions and motivations of the Shakil Sisters. Although they appear in only a few chapters of the book, they nonetheless play a vital role which shapes events throughout the book. Demonstrate how this is so and what they accomplish. What characters do they influence, and how does that influence further influence other characters? How does everything come full circle to them? In what manner does their life begin, and how does it end? What does the circuity of the story's plot reveal about the Shakil Sisters?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

In an analytical essay, carefully examine the character and personality of Omar Khayyam Shakil. Take into account all of the relevant details, from the moment and manner of his conception until his violent death. In what ways is he is a peripheral character? How is he in any sense a hero of the story? In what way do his actions, or lack thereof, move the events of the story? In what ways is he significant as a symbolic character? What does his character, in all its exaggerations, demonstrate about universal human nature?

(see the answer keys)

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