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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 assertion does Kurosawa refute at the beginning of Keika Middle School?

2. In Keika Middle School, what event did young Akira win at his school?

3. In The Gleam of Fireflies, what grade was young Akira graduating from?

4. What role did Uekusa Keinosuke later play in Kurosawa's professional life?

5. In Kendo, what does Kurosawa recall his father doing in the morning during the war years?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the earthquake provide an opportunity for violence in Tokyo?

2. Describe the memories of sound that Kurosawa describes at the end of this section?

3. What was Forgotten Children, and how did it affect Kurosawa?

4. How was Kuosawa's new art teacher different from Mr. Tachikawa?

5. Describe Akira's relationship with Aunt Togashi.

6. How was Kurosawa nearly killed on the way to school in this section?

7. What memories does Akira Kurosawa have about movies in his childhood?

8. What romantic gesture did Uekusa attempt at sixteen?

9. Who is Mr. Tachikawa?

10. How did young Uekusa prove foolhardy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the book, Akira Kurosawa maintains a sort of bemused, precise tone. Occasionally, though, the death of a loved one will elicit some deep emotional response. Write an essay detailing three of these occasions:

Part 1) Why does Akira Kurosawa only mention one of his sisters in the book? What is special about this particular sister, and what role did she play in young Akira's life? What particular elements of her death does the author mention, and how does this description affect him even as he writes them?

Part 2) Who is Aunt Togashi, and why is she so dear to young Akira? How old was she when she died, and what does Kurosawaa suspect was the cause of her death? What emotion does this elicit, and how is it different from the one his sister's death elicited?

Part 3) Discuss the profound impact Akira's father's death had on him as an adult. What action did Akira take upon receiving word of his father's passing? What experience did he have the next morning,a nd how was he able to convert it into a work of cinematic art?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about Akira Kurosawa's sense of national identity. What does he state to the reader directly about being a child of the world? What issues did Kurosawa have with Japan during the War, and how did he subtly deny his homeland? Discuss the shift that happens in Kurosawa's attitude when Japan loses the War. What new outlook regarding his home country develops? How does this manifest itself in his interests in art and culture?

Essay Topic 3

Each of the three schools that Akira Kurosawa attends offers a set of harrowing challenges for the young boy. As such, they each offer a chance for growth. Write an essay comparing these three schools. What challenges does each offer young Akira? Do these challenges defeat him, help him grow, or both? What mentors and compatriots does Akira meet at each? How is the Akira that leaves different from the one that enters?

Part 1) Morimura Gakuen.

Part 2) His second, unnamed school.

Part 3) Keika Middle School.

(see the answer keys)

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