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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 sport does Simone grow to love?

2. What does Simone compare to urine?

3. Why does the narrator claim others see the world as decent?

4. What does Simone do following her climax?

5. What does the narrator think when he first reaches Simone?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Marcelle seem to fear most at the end of Chapter 7, and what does the narrator realize this fear relates to?

2. Explain why Simone and the narrator do not speak of eggs, or of any other portion of their unusual sexual relationship.

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

4. Describe the sexual fantasy of Simone and the narrator about Marcelle in Chapter 6.

5. Describe what Simone begins enjoying doing with eggs at the beginning of Chapter 6.

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

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

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

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

10. Explain how Simone and the narrator travel to Spain undetected.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The ending description of the dead priest's eye, appearing as Marcelle's eye, looking out at the narrator from between the thighs of Simone, covered in urine and ejaculation fluid, is a highly visual representation of several key points in the novel. Discuss each of these in detail. What is the symbolism of the entire image? What does it represent? Why does the narrator see the eye of Marcelle? What does he equate the urine and ejaculation fluid to? What does it symbolize in terms of the themes within the novel? What moment in the novel does each represent independently?

Essay Topic 2

There are several references to eyes in the novel. List each reference you can think of, and discuss its use in the novel. What was the reference? How was it used? Did it have any special meaning? Why? What was the reference relating to?

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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