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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. Cosmopolitanism, as defined by communism, is what thought?

2. How do the Multi-Bing pills change a man?

3. According to Chapter 4, as the Polish uprising fought the Nazis for control of Warsaw, what did the Red Army do?

4. During World War II, how did the nearness of death affect the Poles' lives?

5. What school of thought gave Alpha the tragic language he needed?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does aesthetic Ketman flourish, when nothing of the sort is necessary in other countries?

2. Is Ketman necessary to the citizen of the New Faith? Why?

3. Several times, Milosz describes bombed Warsaw as the cratered moon. How is this significant?

4. Why is the Ketman of revolutionary purity the most rare form of Ketman?

5. .How did Alpha become a more religious writer when he turned away from Christianity?

6. Why does the Eastern communist often call the West stupid?

7. What is communism's goal for the relationship between the present and the past?

8. From several references to Tito throughout Chapters 2 and 3, what can the reader infer about him? What does the center gain by making an example of him?

9. If an artist disagrees with the dialectical method, he debates the question with a panel of Party authorities and always, undoubtedly loses. Why is this so?

10. What advantages does the Center gain with the idea of "cosmopolitanism"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Given the examples only of these four men, what is your impression of communism? Is it possible to get a good idea of both communist ideals and its reality by reading about their lives? Use examples from their chapters to illustrate your thoughts.

Essay Topic 2

Milosz called Beta's war stories terrifying because they were told simply and truthfully, almost brutally. How is it possible to tell such stories with so little emotion? To what degree is empathy a necessary quality of stories? Is it possible for the reader, removed by many decades and a culture, to experience a similar lack of sympathy?

Essay Topic 3

Milosz repeatedly returns to the idea that religion is dead. Is this true? If so, how is it replaced in modern society? Keep in mind his argument that man craves the mysterious, and so religion is necessarily replaced.

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