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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 what city does Haroun Harappa hijack an aircraft?

2. Against what unclean animal does Dawood persuade Raza Hyder to launch a campaign?

3. Where is Iskander buried?

4. Into what new organization of his own creation does Iskander Harappa make Talvar Ulhaq the head?

5. While in the body of a 19-year-old, what age is Sufiya Zinobia mentally?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the final disgrace of Naveed Hyder's marriage to Captain Talvar Ulhaq.

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

3. How does Iskander Harappa rise to power?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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