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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 color hair does Marcelle have?

2. What does the narrator note about the colors of the girls' stockings?

3. What item does the narrator take from his parents' home?

4. When does Simone have her first orgasm with the narrator?

5. What does the narrator forget inside the building?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the mother's second encounter with the couple in their actions, and her reaction as well as the reaction of the couple.

2. What does the couple see almost immediately after entering the sanitarium grounds, and how do they know this indicates Marcelle is involved?

3. What does Simone develop an urge to do with eggs at the beginning of Chapter 2?

4. What has happened to Marcelle after the orgy? How does the couple discover what has happened to Marcelle? What do they think of doing to help her?

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

6. How does the narrator explain Marcelle's features as she gazes at the ocean?

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

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

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

10. How does the narrator equate sex and violence?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Nature plays a large part in this story, as the narrator often uses the nature surrounding the characters to explain changes in their senses, and to explain some of their behaviors. List at least two examples of when nature is used as a part of the storyline. What were the characters doing? How did nature play a part? What was the situation? What was the end result? How did nature affect the behaviors or actions of the characters?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the novel, there are several references to both the eye and the egg, and both seem to be related by the end of the novel. Discuss ways in which the eye and the egg are used in the novel to convey thoughts and concepts. Be sure to examine specific instances in detail. What are similarities? What are differences? What are different ways in which these items are associated? How are they used in the novel? What do they represent?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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