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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 the narrator do shortly upon entering?

2. What do the two youths do together following Simone's actions in Chapter 1?

3. What do the girls do to entice the boys at the event in Chapter 2?

4. What does the couple do when a person arrives during their sexual play?

5. What does the couple notice once they scale the wall?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator avoid police capture in Chapter 3 and how is this possible?

2. Describe the first meeting in Chapter 3 between Simone and the narrator following the orgy.

3. How is the violence of the thunderstorm linked to the violence of the actions of Simone and the narrator in Chapter 1?

4. What does the narrator explain causes his and Simone's sexual dream to turn in to a nightmare?

5. Explain why, despite being modest, Simone and the narrator have the relationship they have?

6. How do the parents find out about the orgy, and what do the parents do when they discover what has occurred?

7. What happens when the narrator finds Simone, and what is the accidental result that rises Marcelle from her room?

8. Explain what Simone does with the saucer of milk in the first chapter.

9. Explain the narrator's trip through the sanitarium.

10. Explain what happens to Marcelle in Chapter 1.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the novel, sexual gratification and violence appear to go hand in hand. Discuss this idea in depth. Why is sex and violence tied together in the novel? What are some examples of this theme? What are the narrator's thoughts on this particular link? What does this idea lead the teens to do?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the characters of Simone and Marcelle. What are their similarities? What are their differences? Why does each character change as they do throughout the novel? What are the motivations for their behaviors? What causes them to go insane? Who is responsible for their downward spirals? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Word association and thought association is used throughout the novel, both as a visual tool but also as a tool to convey reasons for certain behaviors. Choose one of the topics below, and write a complete analysis of how the word is associated in the novel, and what this association means in terms of the characters and/or the storyline.

1.) Associations with lightning

2.) Associations with urine

3.) Associations with the color red

4.) Associations with the Milky Way

(see the answer keys)

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