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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 below the charcoal hut?

2. Who does Mokichi say is raiding the village?

3. What is the name of the priests' Portuguese missionary?

4. Where do the priests hide to view what is happening in the village?

5. Kichijiro's murmurings prompt Garrpe to interrogate him on ___________________.

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Mokichi and Ichizo?

2. What does Rodrigues do during his stay in Odomari?

3. Describe the storm at the beginning of Chapter 2.

4. What does the reader learn in the prologue?

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

6. Why do the officials burn Mokichi and Ichizo's bodies?

7. How does Kichijiro agree to help the two priests?

8. Why does Garrpe again interrogate Kichijiro about his religion?

9. What does Ferreria say happens to seven Christians in Japan?

10. In what way do Garrpe and Rodrigues' opinions differ when the two men ask them to come to their village?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine Endo's writing style. How would you describe Endo's prose style? What kind of vocabulary does he use? Does he use any specific writing techniques? What meaning does Endo's style give to the story?

Essay Topic 2

The novel is set mostly in Japan.

1) What meaning does Japan bring to the novel? What would you automatically presume about a novel that was set in Japan?

2) How different do you think today's Japan is to the Japan in the novel? How do you think the novel's meaning would change if it were set in today's Japan?

3) How do you think the Japanese settings contribute to the novel's spiritual meaning?

Essay Topic 3

Silence is described as historical fiction and therefore the reader would expect aspects of the novel to be historically accurate. What parts of the novel do you think have to be accurate? In what parts does Endo need to exaggerate the truth and why? Can such a book ever be regarded as an accurate historical account?

(see the answer keys)

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