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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 object does Yukio give to his mother when he visits the past?

2. What happens immediately after Yukio leaves the café to make a phone call?

3. What does Goro tell Fumiko is likely the reason that Kurata chose her to help him with his plan?

4. When Asami addresses Kurata "brusquely," what does this indicate her tone is (97)?

5. When Nagare pops his head out of the kitchen at the beginning of the story, what does he offer Kurata?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the conditions that Kurata gives Fumiko for either bringing or not bringing Asami to the café?

2. What news about Yukio does the reader learn in "Lovers"?

3. A year prior to the events of "Husband and Wife," what does Kiyoshi see in the café and what does it make him realize is true?

4. How do Yukio's actions and emotions during the scene where he first sits down in the time-travel chair foreshadow his plan to not return to the present?

5. How did Kinuyo prove her devotion to her son over and over during his childhood?

6. How does Yaeko Hirai's story inspire Kiyoshi to make a change in the way he has been living his life?

7. What complication almost prevents Kiyoshi from traveling back in time, and how does Nagare solve the problem?

8. What comparison does Yukio make between his own situation and that of a character in Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird?

9. What is similar about Asami's decision to meet Kurata and the advice Kurata gave her after her miscarriage?

10. What larger point about life is the narrator of "Husband and Wife" making in the story's introductory comments about winter and spring?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the text's advice about dealing with regret differ from its advice about dealing with grief? What similarities are there between these two emotions, and what is the key difference between them that leads to the text advocating different ways of dealing with them? Write an essay in which you explore the text's position on the sources and impact of these two emotions as well as its differing advice for dealing with them. Use the examples of the time-travelers in the collection to support your assertions. Be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

What does Tales from the Café convey about the fleeting nature of human life? Because life lasts a finite and unpredictable amount of time, what does this text advise people do to maximize their happiness? What are some issues from the past that might encroach on a person's present happiness? How does the text advise people to deal with these issues? Write an essay in which you take and defend a position on the theme 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 3

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.

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