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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the context of Chapter 8, peasants are divided into three categories so that what happens?
(a) Mutual hatred grows among them.
(b) Work is done most efficiently.
(c) They form ties outside their social class.
(d) The Center can better govern them.

2. When a man refuses to become a shock-worker in a factory, what does he soon find?
(a) He is fired, and cannot provide for his family.
(b) He is denied the privileges of better work or vacation.
(c) He is imprisoned until his views change.
(d) He is demoted until he can learn respect.

3. At a fairly young age, how did Beta die?
(a) At the hands of the Nazis.
(b) By suicide.
(c) At the hands of the communists.
(d) By an unknown assassin.

4. As Beta scornfully realized, how could someone have power in Poland?
(a) Follow the procedures established by the Polish government.
(b) Overcome the Nazis.
(c) Seize it by force.
(d) Destroy all Polish underground resistance.

5. In Russia, what organization did Gamma and several of his friends create?
(a) The Society of Enlightened Communist Workers.
(b) The Union of Patriots.
(c) The Society for the Well-Being of Mankind.
(d) The Union of Workers.

Short Answer Questions

1. When he spent time in Moscow, what kinds of reports did Delta send back?

2. While living in exile, how did Delta feel?

3. When Delta's writing no longer pleased the party, what happened?

4. What did Delta, in his enthusiasm, love?

5. How was Delta's cheerful poetry treated?

Short Essay Questions

1. Gamma did not even try to save his family when they were deported to Siberia. How is this a vivid example of the communist attitude toward individual lives?

2. Nearly six years of Nazi rule had radically changed people's ideas of private property. Did this help or harm the communist idea of common property?

3. How was Delta able to play the game that the center demanded of him--and be better at it?

4. Milosz opens Chapter VI with a description of Vilna as it existed during his childhood. Is this simply to introduce Gamma or is there another reason?

5. How were Beta's stories a fitting insight into his nihilist worldview?

6. How did Beta's circumstances lead him to a poetry that constantly moved? Why was it restless?

7. Under communist rule, education is from a strictly materialistic view. Why is this necessary to maintain proper thought among the citizens?

8. In Chapter VIII, Milosz takes on the tone of a communist to describe the evils of the various classes. How is this more powerful than a mere description?

9. Milosz writes that Delta could not (or would not) distinguish between truth and fable, even in his personal life. Is this the kind of mind the Party would have wanted?

10. Why does Milosz go to such pains to describe Gamma, when the other writers found in his book are given only a few sentences of description?

(see the answer keys)

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