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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. When do Beta's stories show that people are good?
2. What happened when Beta's artistic talent moved to the furthest boundaries of communist dictates?
3. In Chapter 5, how is Beta characterized?
4. How can the relationship between Gamma and the author be described?
5. What was the title of Beta's first book?
Short Essay Questions
1. Under communist rule, education is from a strictly materialistic view. Why is this necessary to maintain proper thought among the citizens?
2. 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?
3. Milosz calls Beta's reaction to the concentration camp life sadistic. How is this true?
4. Eventually Delta's poems became something of a dream, unreal. How was this inevitable?
5. How was Delta's poetry some of the most insightful work being written at the time?
6. How does the party's definition of a reactionary reduce him to a comic level?
7. How was Delta able to play the game that the center demanded of him--and be better at it?
8. Rather than blaming these four men for the choices they made, Milosz says they were slaves to history. How is this true?
9. Milosz states that the goals of the workers are far different from those of the state. How is this so?
10. 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?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Milosz asserts that the way to rule a nation's mind is through the word. Is this true or are there other factors equally important? Given what he says about both Nazi and communist controls over the printed word, how was this played out in Poland?
Essay Topic 2
Through Party propaganda and education, communism suppresses man's ability to think for himself. How do the people presented in The Captive Mind either fight or accept this suppression? Consider only the main subjects of the book, including their writing for the underground or for the party.
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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This section contains 1,307 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
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