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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. What reason does Frieda suggest for letting the assistants return?

2. When does K. say he wants to see Klamm?

3. Who does Frieda say the assistants really want?

4. What do the assistants do when K. makes them leave?

5. Who is waiting with the gentleman for K.?

Short Essay Questions

1. What impression does Frieda make when K. first meets her?

2. What do Artur and Jeremias know about land surveying?

3. What is the landlady's relationship to Klamm?

4. How does K. react to the gentleman who comes to the coach while K. is there waiting?

5. How does the Castle react to inquiries about K. when he first arrives?

6. What use does Frieda think the position offered to K. might serve?

7. What reason does K. give for refusing to let the assistants come back?

8. What happens between K. and the assistants after Frieda gets up in the middle of the night at the school?

9. What reason does the landlady give K. that her conversation with him is important, and does her reason seem true, based on the conversation?

10. How does K. feel at the end of Chapter VIII?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the role of social rules and pressure in THE CASTLE.

1) How does the community impose unwritten laws in THE CASTLE?

2) What are the consequences of defying unwritten laws in THE CASTLE? How do the consequences differ for K. and for Amalia's family?

3) What are the benefits and drawbacks of social conformity in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the unspoken and unwritten rules in the novel.

1) What are the rules of behavior in the village? How do the people in the village know those rules?

2) What are the rules of behavior for secretaries in the Castle? How do the Castle employees know those rules?

3) What does K. think of unspoken and unwritten rules? What is the result of his attitude?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, bureaucracy causes obstructions for the characters. Discuss the obstructions of bureaucracy in the novel.

1) How does bureaucracy call K. to the town? How does it affect the plot?

2) Inside the Castle bureaucracy, is it possible to tell what actually happened and what is important? What is the significance of the obscuring nature of bureaucracy?

3) How do the inhabitants of the town view their own town's bureaucracy? What are the consequences of complaining about bureaucracy?

(see the answer keys)

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