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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 16-year-old Londoner of whom the narrator initially conceives?

2. Who kills Iskander Harappa?

3. For how long is Sufiya Zinobia chained up in the attic?

4. How many children does Naveed bear Talvar Ulhaq?

5. What is Omar's medical specialty?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. How does Iskander Harappa rise to power?

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

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

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

9. Why does Captain Talvar Ulhaq take great risk to steal Naveed Hyder from her arranged marriage to Haroun Harappa?

10. How does Iskander Harappa finally die?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In a carefully developed essay, discuss the importance of catharsis of emotions and how the neglect of catharsis leads to calamity, as is demonstrated in Shame. What is catharsis? Why is it important? What happens when emotions are not acknowledged? What happens to the reactions that ought to occur? Where do they go? How do they transfer from one person to another?

Essay Topic 2

Various actions and statements made by the characters throughout the story support the notion that in Pakistan, as portrayed in Shame, males are in every way superior to females. Analyze, in a well-developed essay, this societal perspective. Who holds this view? Who objects to it? In what ways does this view, as espoused implicitly or explicitly by various characters, impact the story? What is the significance of this view to the main themes and the morals promoted within them as presented throughout the story of Shame?

Essay Topic 3

Examine, in a carefully thought-out analytical essay, the usage of the motif of narrative asides employed by the author throughout the book. What do these asides accomplish? How do they add to the story? In what regard does the author use them to the story's benefit? Do they serve any purpose beyond enhancing the imagery and method of the story's delivery?

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This section contains 754 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample