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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 did Kinuyo give her son when he left for Kyoto?

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

3. Where is the time-traveling café located?

4. What kind of drawing does Kazu specialize in?

5. What is the woman in white doing when Gohtaro is talking with Kyoko and Kazu?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. When Shuichi tells Haruka in his message, "If it is for you, I can do anything," what does this foreshadow (36)?

3. What causes the narrator to suggest that Kyoko might be thinking, "Saved by Miki" when Kyoko suddenly bursts out laughing on page 53?

4. Why does Gohtaro want to travel to the past?

5. 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?

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

7. 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?

8. How does the subject of Kyoko's son Yohsuke come up in conversation?

9. What has fatherhood been like for Gohtaro?

10. What are the rules of the time-traveling café?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which characters in Tales from the Café profit from the moral example or advice offered by others? Are there any characters who try to follow someone else's example or advice and fail? Are there characters who simply disregard the example set or advice offered by others? When people do learn from others in this way, what are the outcomes? Write an essay in which you analyze the messages that Tales from the Café sends about learning from others. 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

Sometimes a setting is so significant that it becomes almost like a character in a story. Why is the Funiculi Funicula Café so important to the action of this text? In what sense is it more consistent than any of the collection's human characters? What does the juxtaposition of the café's consistency with the fleeting nature of human life contribute to the text's meaning? Write an essay in which you analyze the significance of the café itself. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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