Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Because the Communist Party was at first illegal in Poland, what did party members do?
2. In the concentration camp, what is Beta's job?
3. Beta remained bitter because he was unable to see what?
4. How were Gamma's interactions with people characterized?
5. When he spent time in Moscow, what kinds of reports did Delta send back?
Short Essay Questions
1. Beta saw life only in terms of society rather than in terms of individual man. How was this his downfall?
2. How did Beta's circumstances lead him to a poetry that constantly moved? Why was it restless?
3. "Still, it was not easy to become a communist, for communism meant a complete revision of one's concepts of nationality " (pg. 147). How was this true?
4. How was Delta able to play the game that the center demanded of him--and be better at it?
5. Milosz calls Beta's reaction to the concentration camp life sadistic. How is this true?
6. How was Delta's poetry some of the most insightful work being written at the time?
7. Beta's anger toward mankind became directed toward a fear of self-deception. How did this happen?
8. Rather than blaming these four men for the choices they made, Milosz says they were slaves to history. How is this true?
9. 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?
10. Delta, in wandering the roads in France, met people from many different nations. How did this universal migration prepare the way even more for communist rule?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Throughout the book, the converts to communism decry the evils of capitalism, even going so far as to say capitalism led directly to Hitlerism (pg. 128, Beta's assertion). Is this necessarily true? If communism leads, as history has proven, to a dictatorship, then where does capitalism lead?
Essay Topic 2
Several people in The Captive Mind believe that life without religion, philosophy, and art is not worth living. Is this true? Are there necessary things which this list does not include or, conversely, is the list too long? Be sure to define the terms clearly (e.g., is art a painting hung on the wall, or is it the beauty found throughout the world?)
Essay Topic 3
What is the relationship between Western and Eastern communism? How do the citizens of each sphere think about and react to each other? Find specific examples of their current interactions, and project the outcome of these to the future. Will they always look at the world through such disparate viewpoints?
|
This section contains 1,244 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
