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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 important about the protagonist of the story?

2. In what year is the narrator at the school in #49?

3. How can Ivan best be described?

4. What is missing from the encounters the narrator has with other men?

5. The person in #73 also admits to ____________________.

Short Essay Questions

1. Who are Betty and Kay and why does the narrator enjoy their company?

2. How did the struggle for acceptance and freedom for lesbians differ from that of gay men?

3. Why does the narrator long to be heterosexual, especially when he sees the irresponsible behavior of his heterosexual fraternity brothers?

4. How does the narrator's coming of age as a gay man mirror the coming of age of an entire gay community?

5. What is the nature of the narrator's relationship with Annie and what does she do to embarrass herself while visiting his parents?

6. What are some of the themes addressed in "The Beautiful Room is Empty"?

7. What role do emotions play in the narrator's sexual relations with other men and the sexual relations of homosexual men in general?

8. Why is the narrator the embodiment of sacrificing oneself for the sake of social acceptance?

9. Describe the narrator's first year experiences at college.

10. How does the narrator compare his life to the life of the Chinese woman he meets?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The role of parental influence is a strong one--mostly negative--on the narrator. Why was the narrator's sexual preference particularly hard on his father? What solution did the narrator's mother have for her son's "problem"? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Substance abuse seems to be an unnamed character in the book. How pervasive is the abuse? Why does it have such a prevalent place in the characters' lives? How does it affect the abusers? How does it affect those impacted by the abusers? Explain how an inanimate object or characteristic can be a character.

Essay Topic 3

Explain the role of gays and lesbians in the 1960s. What precedents were they forced to follow? What restrictions did they have? What freedoms did they have that 21st century gays and lesbians do not have?

(see the answer keys)

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