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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 have officials made it difficult to do?

2. What do the officials do with the two dead bodies?

3. Where do the authorities confine the Christian women?

4. Who advised the men to trample on the picture?

5. For what is a person rewarded 300 pieces of silver?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Kichijiro prove that he is of weak character?

2. Describe the priests' journey to India.

3. Why do Mokichi, Ichizo and Kichijiro have to leave the village?

4. Why is there distrust among Christian villagers?

5. How does the rain affect the priest's mindset?

6. Why does it seem the priests cannot enter Japan?

7. Why are the priests suspicious of Kichijiro?

8. What indicators are there that Kichijiro could be trouble?

9. How do the villagers secretly continue with their Christian faith?

10. Why do the three priests want to enter Japan?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Silence is part of the historical fiction genre.

1) What are the conventions of the historical fiction genre in terms of character, language and plot?

2) In what way did Silence help to set the template for similar novels? Do modern novels still use the ideas used in Silence?

Essay Topic 2

Identify the main themes of the story. Why do you think these themes are so important to the story? How does Endo use character and setting to express these themes?

Essay Topic 3

Use the following statement to write a 500-word essay: While Endo looks at the persecution of Japanese Christians, the book fails to address why the Japanese government was against Christianity.

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This section contains 750 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample