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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. Why was Gamma's writing weak?

2. When man is faced with constant death and when life seems meaningless, how does dialectical materialism seem?

3. In Russia, what organization did Gamma and several of his friends create?

4. What did Gamma's second wife wear?

5. Why is Christianity the state's primary enemy?

Short Essay Questions

1. Rather than blaming these four men for the choices they made, Milosz says they were slaves to history. How is this true?

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

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

4. Beta's anger toward mankind became directed toward a fear of self-deception. How did this happen?

5. How does the party's definition of a reactionary reduce him to a comic level?

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

In different ways, the Polish people learned to contain and even condense their emotions, letting only the most elemental emotions show. What does this say about man's ability to survive difficult times? To what extent were the people reduced to the physiological level of hunted animals? Use examples from the book to show how emotions were stripped down to their most basic level.

Essay Topic 3

The book is fraught with nationalist tendencies, including the pride Milosz feels for his native city Vilna. What does this tell the reader about Milosz's idea of place? How does he act on (or, conversely, react to) these national tendencies? In the end, is he loyal to Poland?

(see the answer keys)

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