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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. How does Simone change after Marcelle's death?

2. What does the narrator imagine he will do with the rest of his life?

3. What does Simone do following her violent spasms?

4. What is one of the causes for the trio's irritation at the bullfight?

5. How is Granero.killed?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator claim he does not care for "normal" pleasures, and why even dirty pleasures have become unsatisfying?

2. Explain how the death of Granero occurs, and the result of his death in terms of his eye.

3. In Chapter 6, the author purposefully italicizes the words "wide eyes" and "white eggs". What is the significance of this?

4. Describe the scene in the pigsty in Chapter 9, and explain its significance.

5. What are the three things that fascinate Simone about bullfights?

6. Explain how the author notes the change in Marcelle as he describes her actions when Simone and the narrator are freeing her from the sanitarium.

7. Explain the narrator's actions as the couple stops the first time on their journey home from the sanitarium in Chapter 5.

8. What does the narrator believe is the goal of his own lack of moral discipline?

9. Explain the author's comparison between his own life and the crow of a rooster.

10. What does the confusion between the cardinal and the narrator on the part of Marcelle seem to show?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Several times throughout the novel, the author equates orgasm to death. Explore this connection in depth. Why would such a connection exist? In what ways does the author link these two concepts? What is his purpose for this link? How does this link represent the lives of Simone and the narrator? Does this point come across clearly? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

The novel begins with the discovery of unusual sexual practices by two teenagers, and ends with the murder and mutilation of a priest for sexual gratification. Discuss, in detail, the journey of Simone and the narrator, and discuss the events which led to their downward spiral into murder. Be sure to include the involvement of parents, other associates, and the activities participated in.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, the parents of the children are brought up in terms of their inability to deal with the clear sexual nature of the relationship of their children, or their clear desire to avoid scandal. Explain the reaction of Simone's mother in the novel. What was her response to the sexual relationship? What did she do? Isa she at least partly responsible for the end result of the novel? Why or why not? Should the narrator's parents have sought him out, even after his threatening note? Why or why not? Why did they not do so? Were they partly to blame for the deaths of Marcelle and the priest? Why or why not?

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