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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. Who does Christopher refer to as being "mere ghosts?"

2. Which is not the profession of the friends on the island?

3. Which of the following characters moves out of the boarding house, making room for Fraulein Bowles?

4. What is the name of the setting used in Section 3?

5. How does Christopher describe the food served at the Nowak house?

Short Essay Questions

1. What precipitates Sally's move from her residence? Where does she go?

2. What becomes of Fraulein Schroeder?

3. With which two family members does Christopher seem to connect with the most?

4. What was Christopher's reaction to being flirted with by two of the three ill women at the sanitarium?

5. What is the purpose of Christopher's trip to Ruegen Island? Where does he stay while on the island?

6. Who are the residents of the boarding house?

7. How does Christopher describe Bernard? How does he compare to Natalia?

8. What does Christopher discover when he returns to the Nowak house to pick up Otto?

9. How does Christopher describe the situation?

10. What is the subtitle to this section? When and where do the events take place?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

It is obvious that many of the characters in the book are homosexual or bisexual, although that precise word is never used. Why do you think Isherwood made many references to this behavior but avoided using any explicit reference to homosexuality and bisexuality? Cite various passages in the text that show a character's sexuality and discuss how it is referenced by Isherwood. Is Isherwood bisexual or homosexual? How do you know?

Essay Topic 2

In the beginning of A Berlin Diary, Isherwood refers to himself as a camera. Isherwood says, "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking." Why do you think Isherwood used the camera as a metaphor? Why would Isherwood want to record everything around him yet not think about or analyze it? What other references are made to the camera throughout the text? What other metaphors might have worked as well or better?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Christopher Isherwood's career as a writer, before and after he moved to the United States in 1946. What was Isherwood's original reason for traveling to Berlin? How long did he stay in the country? Where did he go after he left Germany? What other books did Isherwood write? What two plays were inspired by "The Berlin Stories?"

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This section contains 689 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample