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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. In Chapter 8, how does the party treat whatever is not expressed?

2. Beta wrote poems characterized by what?

3. What was the title of Beta's first book?

4. How did Delta return to his wife in Poland?

5. How does Milosz describe Delta's poetry?

Short Essay Questions

1. "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?

2. Milosz states that the goals of the workers are far different from those of the state. How is this so?

3. How are the peasants, in several ways, the most helpless class of people?

4. Beta saw life only in terms of society rather than in terms of individual man. How was this his downfall?

5. 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?

6. Milosz calls Beta's reaction to the concentration camp life sadistic. How is this true?

7. Why is Gamma called "the slave of history"? Whose interests does he serve?

8. How was Delta's poetry some of the most insightful work being written at the time?

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. Eventually Delta's poems became something of a dream, unreal. How was this inevitable?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Though many human interactions are characterized by some degree of acting, the citizens of Soviet countries are forced to take this to an extreme. What does this tell us about the relationship between communist ideals and the individual? What should the role of government be in an individual's life? To what degree is this a perversion of how it should be? Or is this justified in the name of communist ideals?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Beta's stories portray man as an animal, barely held in check by the restraints of civilization. How is this demonstrated in Poland during World War II? Given the progression of Poland through capitalism, Nazism, and communism, was man's good or animal side stronger? Which one triumphed? Also, use examples from the book of people acting out of goodness.

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