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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 did Frieda's mother warn her about K.?

2. What type of apprenticeship does Barnabas have?

3. Which of Barnabas's siblings is at the house when K. arrives?

4. What do the gentlemen in the Gentlemen's Inn do to call the landlord?

5. Does Frieda come back to K. at the end of Chapter XXII?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Amalia accuse K. of using Barnabas for?

2. What does K. hope that Barnabas' good news was?

3. What is Frieda doing for Jeremias at the end of Chapter XXII?

4. How does K. respond to what Barnabas tells him about the Castle?

5. What did Sortini do when Amalia's family approached him?

6. Where do Jeremias and Frieda go to work after K. leaves?

7. What reasons does Buergel give against forbidding interrogations at night?

8. What is Frieda afraid might happen to he if her mother's warnings are right?

9. What happens to Jeremias and Artur when they are not together?

10. Why does K. stay in the corridor after his meeting with Erlanger?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the novel, the characters desire favors from the upper class. Favors allow characters to get ahead in life, but both how they are acquired and whether they are deserved is ill-defined. Discuss the role of favors in the novel.

1) Is the lease of the Bridge Inn and the marriage between the landlady and landlord all a favor from Klamm to the landlady? In what ways is it ambiguous? What role does Klamm play in the landlady receiving these things?

2) What does K. expect to receive from Klamm? What does he believe you need to do to receive a favor?

3) What are characters in the novel willing to do for favors? Under what circumstances do the characters receive good things? Is it related to their actions?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Discuss communication in the novel.

1) How does Klamm communicate with K. in the novels? What are the problems in this communication?

2) Can K. and Frieda truly communicate with each other in the novel? What are the stumbling blocks to communication between them?

3) How do the means of communication used by the Castle, such as the phone and messengers, emphasize its bureaucracy and its disconnectedness from reality? What role does communication play in the Castle's bureaucracy?

(see the answer keys)

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