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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 causes Kimiko to tell Kiyoshi that he sounds like a detective?

2. What distinctive item of clothing does Kiyoshi wear?

3. How old was Yukio when he accepted the wholesaler's offer?

4. Why was Yukio still struggling financially even after he started getting a salary from the pottery studio?

5. Who enters the café just after Kurata finally finishes his coffee and disappears?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. After Asami suffered a miscarriage, what advice did Kurata give her?

6. What is Kurata wearing in the story's opening, and why does it make him seem out of place?

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

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

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. How did Yukio lose all of his money?

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

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 3

The relationship between Yukio and his mother is one of mutual obligation to each other's happiness. This relationship gives their lives meaning, and their obligations to one another do not end with either's death. How does the relationship between Kazu and Kaname echo this relationship? What other kinds of relationships does the text present similarly, as a two-way system of obligation that transcends death? Write an essay in which you consider the text's messages about mutual obligation in intimate human relationships. 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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