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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 does Rheya's blood look like to Kelvin at the cellular level?

2. What does Rheya's blood look like to Kelvin at a subatomic level?

3. Has Kelvin met Sartorius, prior to arriving at the research station?

4. What does Kelvin notice about Rheya's foot?

5. What does Kelvin hear from inside Sartorius' lab?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Kelvin feel as he goes into his room on the space station?

2. Why does Kelvin react emotionally to the two sundresses on the floor?

3. Is Kelvin on time for his meeting with Snow?

4. Describe Snow.

5. Why does Kelvin take the Historia Solaris down from the bookshelf?

6. What is Gibarian's reaction to the eerie sound of footsteps echoing through the station?

7. What do the scientists see when the cover falls off Sartorius' video phone?

8. Why aren't Berton's experiences related in the Supplement that Gibarian's note directs Kelvin to?

9. Describe the person Kelvin is shocked to see go into Gibarian's room.

10. What do Rheya's death and Gibarian's death have in common?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does the novel say about unknowability? Discuss whether the nature of Solaris' ocean is knowable, based on external information, which is the only information available to humans. Discuss whether the nature of another human being is knowable, also based on the external information that is the only information available to others. Is it possible to truly know one's self, even though an individual is privy to his or her own private life? Use examples from the novel, and explain the author's point of view in your analysis.

Essay Topic 2

Solaris is written in the first person point of view, from Kelvin's perspective. Discuss point of view in Solaris.

1) Kelvin enters the Solaris research in the middle of the action, when Gibarian is already dead. Why does the author choose to begin with Kelvin's arrival into an already ongoing situation?

2) The first person point of view restricts the reader's knowledge to Kelvin's thoughts and perception. Why does the author choose this point of view?

3) Why does the author focus on Kelvin as a character and Kelvin's interaction with his visitor, to the exclusion of the other visitors?

Essay Topic 3

At a sub-molecular level, Rheya is not human. Yet, on a normal level, Rheya is indistinguishable from a human being. Discuss Rheya's status as a person.

1) Is it possible that Rheya has no real "thought" process and is merely mimicking the behavior of a sentient creature? How would Kelvin know?

2) Should Rheya be treated as a person, with the rights and privileges of a human being? To what extent is she a person?

3) Could Rheya know if her thought process was fundamentally completely different from others', as long as her actions were human-like, and would it matter?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 770 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample