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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. What is the name of the 16-year-old Londoner of whom the narrator initially conceives?

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

4. On what does Iskander Harappa feed, as his daughter Arjumand realizes at age 23?

5. At what hospital is Omar named senior consultant in the new capital?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. How does Iskander Harappa finally die?

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

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

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

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

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

10. What becomes of Bilquis in her latter years?

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

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

One of the most important connotations of sharam that is emphasized in Shame is the concept of modesty. Throughout the story, this concept plays an important role in shaping the behavior and attitudes of characters. In a well-developed analytical essay, discuss the various situations in which modesty plays an important role. Which characters adopt attitudes of modesty? How does a lack of modesty negatively effect some characters, and which are effected by it? What does the nuance of modesty carry that distinguishes it from other aspects of shame? What is modesty's role in the main theme of shame?

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