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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. Where do the soap operas the General and Leticia watch come from?

2. What happens as a result of the Vatican's decision in the cause of Bendicion Alvarado?

3. What name does Death use to refer to the General?

4. How had the General's government marked those suspected of nonconformity?

5. What does the narrator use to scrape away the layers disfiguring the General's body?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the occurrence the General believes to be a miracle.

2. After the Papal Nuncio decides that the event was not a miracle, what happens to him?

3. What does Bendicion Alvarado try to tell the General as she is dying?

4. Describe the encounter between the General and the school girl narrator in Chapter 6.

5. How does the General defeat Jose Ignacio Saenz de la Barra's attempted coup?

6. How does Monsignor Demetrius Aldous investigate Bendicion Alvarado for sainthood?

7. What happens to Monsignor Demetrius Aldous as he concludes his investigation of the General's mother?

8. How is Bendicion Alvarado mourned?

9. Describe the successful assassination attempt.

10. Explain the conditions under which Jose Ignacio Saenz de la Barra is allowed to operate the torture chamber.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the novel, Garcia Marquez seamlessly slides between narrative voices ranging from the group of citizens who find the General's body to the General to the school girl the General molests. How would you describe this form of narration? Is it stream of consciousness? Is it free indirect discourse (a technique in which the novelist enters the minds of multiple characters to present different perspectives)? Do their stories line up or are they divergent? Are there contradictions within the narrative? What is the overall effect of these various voices? Support your essay with details from the novel.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss gender and sexual relations in this novel. How does Garcia Marquez deal with sex, sexuality, and gender dynamics? Consider the multiple rapes, the dynamic between the General and his mother, the dynamic between the General and Manuela, and the dynamic between the General and Leticia. Integrate material from the text to support your assertions.

Essay Topic 3

Rapes and coerced sex occur throughout the novel. How does Garcia Marquez treat sexual assault? How does it affect the novel's portrayal of women? Of the General? How does the sinner/saint dynamic play out in this novel, considering the frequent rapes? Support your argument with evidence from the novel.

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