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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. In her lyrics on page 56, to what does Miki compare Nagare?

2. Who is Nagare?

3. What are the repetitions of the isolated, bolded words "clang-dong" meant to signify?

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

5. What is distinctive about the taste of the coffee served at the café?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Kazu sound stern when she tells Gohtaro, "You know that even if your return to the past, reality won't change, right?" (13)?

2. Why does the narrator use vague language to describe the tears falling during the encounter between Shuichi and Gohtaro?

3. How does the exchange between Kyoko and Kazu about Kazu's boyfriend characterize both women?

4. What warning does Kazu give Gohtaro about remembering to drink his coffee?

5. When Gohtaro tells Shuichi, "Haruka has decided to get married," how does the narrator explain Shuichi's reaction, and what does the reader later learn is the real reason for his reaction?

6. When Gohtaro first sees Shuichi in the past, why does the gesture of putting his hand around his coffee cup cause Gohtaro to suddenly panic about his own ability to communicate?

7. What does Kyoko reveal about her brother's reaction to their mother's death?

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

9. How did Gohtaro end up raising Shuichi's daughter?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

What figurative meaning is there in the text's advice to drink the coffee before it gets cold? How is this figurative meaning supported by the descriptive passages about the origins, taste, preparation, and serving of the coffee? What does it mean that the people drinking it are customers in a timeless and somewhat magical café, not just people drinking coffee that they made in their own homes? What other details and language in the text support the idea that the coffee is symbolic? Write an essay that analyzes the symbolic significance of coffee in 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 3

Do some more research into the uses of ghosts in Japanese literature. Now that you are aware of the identity of the ghost in Tales from the Café, what points about family relationships and mutual obligations would you say are being made through her appearance--and through her eventual disappearance? What do these ideas convey about the nature of happiness? Use your research and evidence from the collection to write an essay in which you analyze the thematic significance of Kaname's ghost in Tales from the Café. Be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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