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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 is the name of the political party of which Iskander Harappa becomes the leader after the present government loses popularity?

2. What does Sufiya Zinobia discover in Omar's bed in the morning after Shahbanou sleeps with him?

3. For what Western publication does Haroun Harappa write an article detailing his father's illicit behavior in Pakistan?

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

5. What is the name of the general who leads the military coup?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Why does the Pakistani government intercept and destroy all incoming copies of a particular issue of Newsweek?

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

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

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

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

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

10. What becomes of Bilquis in her latter years?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compose an analytical essay that fully develops the role of women in the Pakistani society as it is portrayed in Salman Rushdie's Shame. How are they viewed as a whole? What particular roles do individual women fulfill within society? What are some examples of this from the story? In what ways are they abused or neglected? In what ways do the women of the novel nonetheless shape the course of events? What is the ultimate result of women consistently being pushed to the periphery of events by their domineering male counterparts?

Essay Topic 2

Periodically throughout the story, the fictional Pakistan undergoes periods of military coups and subsequent military rule. In an analytical essay, discuss the possible reasons and significance for this occasional turn to the military. What is sought by a military coup, implicitly or explicitly? What sort of men typically achieve high positions in the military? Why are such mean appealing in a time of instability? How do such men eventually also fall from governmental favor?

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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