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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 is the first thing that Shuichi wants to know once he understands that Gohtaro has come from the future?

2. After Kyoko leaves, who is in the café with Kazu?

3. What is Kyoko's reaction to Kazu asking about her brother?

4. While Gohtaro is fumbling with the camera on page 34, what does Shuichi tell him he still needs to work on?

5. What is unusual about the coffee that Kazu pours for Gohtaro?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Shuichi's and Gohtaro's lives take different paths after college?

2. How did Kyoko end up becoming a regular at the café, and why does her son not come with her anymore?

3. Describe the atmosphere of the time-traveling café.

4. Why is Kazu especially concerned with whether Kyoko's brother understands the rule about not being able to change the present?

5. Why does Haruka's plan to marry mean that she will inevitably discover her true parentage?

6. Before Gohtaro goes into the past, what is his plan to deal with the revelations that will occur upon Haruka's marriage?

7. What reason does the narrator give for Kiyoshi asking his question of the café staff?

8. Which element of Gohtaro and Shuichi's relationship in college foreshadows their relationship outside of college?

9. How does the juxtaposition of the made-up lyrics to Miki's song with Kyoko's emotions after her confession about her brother highlight Kyoko's distress?

10. Why is Kyoko not interested in using the café's time-traveling service to go back in time to try to fix the problem with her brother?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the repeated structure of the stories in Tales from the Café impact the collection's tone? What impact do predictability and familiarity have on the reader? How would the feeling the reader gets from these stories be different if each story had a very different, perhaps more challenging, structure? The repeated elements of structure are perhaps most noticeable in the passages where the customers are actually traveling through time and returning to the present. Why do you think this is--what clues to intended tone do you see in the language and details in these passages? Write an essay in which you analyze the impact of the stories' repeated structures on the tone of Tales from the Café. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

Now that you have read several Kawaguchi stories, you will have noticed a structural pattern. How does he begin each story? What kinds of exposition does he interrupt the narrative flow with, and at what points does he generally interrupt? How--and when--does he use flashback, and what is distinctive about his style of flashback? Write an essay in which you consider how Kawaguchi generally structures his stories and what connection this structure has to the themes he is developing in these narratives. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

In a text that focuses on the hopes and desires of different characters who come and go over the course of several separate stories, what is important about having Kazu's situation also reflect key thematic motifs? Which of the thematic motifs in Tales from the Café does Kazu's life story amplify? How does Kawaguchi encourage the reader to care about Kazu and whether she finds happiness? Write an essay that discusses the importance of Kazu as a consistent central figure in Tales from the Café and analyzes the techniques that Kawaguchi uses to make Kazu's happiness significant to the reader. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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