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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. How likely does Frieda's mother say it is for K. to see Klamm?

2. Where do Frieda and K. make love?

3. What reason does Frieda give that she is sad she left the Gentlemen's Inn?

4. How does the teacher know about K.'s conversation with the chairman?

5. Does Frieda agree with what K. wants to do about the assistants?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What does Klamm write about K.'s assistants, and how does this compare to the reality of K.'s assistants' roles?

5. What message does K. send through Barnabas to Klamm?

6. What does the coachman tell K. about Klamm's arrival at the coach?

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

8. What does K. do to get fuel for a fire?

9. How does the chairman's wife act during K.'s visit?

10. What does K. praise Frieda for?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

The bureaucracy of the Castle seems to have no guiding force or leader, and is self-reinforcing, following only rules and regulations. Discuss the leaderless nature of the machine of bureaucracy.

1) Who assesses how well the bureaucracy of the Castle is functioning? What are the consequences?

2) How does the Castle itself function as a leader for the village? What are the consequences of the fact that the Castle is not a person, but an institution? What difference would it make if instead of a Castle, the village followed a King?

3) What controls the Castle? How is bureaucratic control different than control by a leader?

Essay Topic 3

Many of the goals and aims of the characters in the novel prove futile. Discuss futility in the novel.

1) When Amalia's father tries to change the fate of his ostracized family, his quest is futile. Why is his quest futile? Why does he continue to strive for it, even though he loses all his money in bribes?

2) K.'s quest to see Klamm seems futile. What makes his quest unsuccessful? Can he have any control over his quest? Why does he continue to try to see K.?

3) What other characters face futility, and what do they do when faced with futility?

(see the answer keys)

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