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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 Kurata's attitude after he speaks with Asami and finally drinks the last of his coffee?

2. Near the end of the story, what causes Nagare to drop the tray?

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

4. Why is Kiyoshi initially unsure whether he will be welcomed into the café?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. When Kimiko enters the café, whom does Kiyoshi pretend to be, and why?

2. What is Fumiko's relationship to the café?

3. When Yukio is discouraged about his future, what keeps him working toward becoming a potter?

4. What is so tricky about Kurata's time-travel plans, and how has he tried to plan ahead to overcome this difficulty?

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

6. How did Yukio's perception of his own circumstances change over the years of his apprenticeship?

7. Why does Kiyoshi feel partially responsible for his wife's death?

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

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

10. Why does Kimiko have such a strong emotional reaction to the gift from Kiyoshi?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read Fritz Leiber's short story "Try and Change the Past" (available online). Consider the messages it sends about the relationship between past and present. How are these messages similar to and different from those in Tales from the Café? How are the "rules" of time travel constituted in each narrative? What motivates people to travel to the past? How do their travels impact their present reality, if at all? Write an essay comparing and contrasting messages about the relationship of past and present in Leiber's story and Kawaguchi's story collection. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout both texts, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

By the end of Tales from the Café, how has Kazu changed? What details and language early in the story establish that Kazu is trapped in the past? How does Kawaguchi use exposition and narrative action to explain her situation and begin to resolve it over the course of the four stories in the collection? How do other characters contribute to the change Kazu undergoes? What details and language at the end of the story demonstrate that Kazu has finally begun to heal from her grief? Write an essay that traces the development of Kazu's story and analyzes how she changes over the course of this collection. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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