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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. With what phrase does Sufiya Zinobia respond to the bridal advice given to her by her mother on the eve of her wedding?

2. How is the Supreme Court split on Iskander Harappa's death sentence?

3. Which ignominious title does Haroun Harappa receive from the Hyder women preparing Naveed for her wedding?

4. Where does Maulana Dawood believe he lives for the rest of his life, after moving to the new capital?

5. Who kills Iskander Harappa?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is revealed by Rani Harappa's uncovering of the deceased Iskander's face?

2. What is the consequence of Maulana Dawood's quest against the selling and eating of shellfish in Karachi?

3. How does Iskander Harappa bring his fate down upon his head after being arrested and imprisoned in Bagheeragali?

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

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

6. What two phrases constitute the motto of Raza's regime?

7. For what reason does Naveed Hyder Ulhaq commit suicide?

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

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

10. What becomes of Bilquis in her latter years?

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 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 3

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?

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