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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 do Mr. and Mrs. Smith decide not to build the vegetarian center?

2. Why do Brown and Jones sleep in the cemetery until daybreak?

3. Who shoots Captain Concasseur and rescues Brown and Jones from capture?

4. Why is it safe for Brown to leave the cemetery, but not Jones?

5. When Brown and his ship friend return to the boat, why is the guard at the gangplank not threatening?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Jones realizes that Captain Conasseur is curious about his actions, he comes to Brown's hotel in a panic. What does this tell us about Jones's plan to get rich? How prepared is he to deal with the Tonton Macoutes?

2. Why do Mr. and Mrs. Smith refer several times to their experience in Nashville? Brown wonders this himself, when Mrs. Smith references that incident in order to win an argument with her husband.

3. The second time Brown visits the casino, the place is drastically changed from the night he met Martha. How is it different? What does this signal about Haiti's economy?

4. As the two men wait out the night in the cemetery, Jones tells Brown the truth about his life. Is this a fitting time for his confession? Why would he confess to Brown instead of anyone else?

5. Brown feels that the happiest moment he spent with Martha was when they lay outside on the grass, talking. How does this compare to his initial feelings about the relationship? What does this moment portend about the future of their relationship?

6. From even their first meeting, Brown hesitates to address Jones as "Major Jones." How does this begin to explain Jones's character? How does it prepare the reader for the revelation that Jones has never even seen a man die?

7. According to Doctor Magiot in Part 2, Chapter 1, what role does Voodoo play in Haitian culture? What is its relation to Catholicism?

8. In order to leave the Medea to travel to the British embassy, Jones dresses as a woman. What is the effect of this costume? How does it reflect on Jones?

9. When Brown attends the Voodoo ceremony with Joseph, several white-wrapped bodies are held close to the flame so that the skin burns. What is the effect of this scene? What is its possible antecedent?

10. When Brown's car breaks down on the road, he and Jones take refuge in a cemetery until the morning. How does this fit their time in Haiti? How does it portend what is to come?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the main female characters in The Comedians, Martha and Mrs. Smith. How are they in many ways completely opposite? How does fidelity in their respective marriages change their characters?

Essay Topic 2

Martha notes that when Brown loves her, she is a woman. When he is angry at her, she is a German. How is this true? Find examples throughout the book of his loving or hurting her. For example, several times in Part One, Chapter Three, he refers to her German heritage. Does he care more about her father's crimes or about hurting her? Does he have any personal connection to the Nazi crimes?

Essay Topic 3

Brown often defines characters by their race, which seems also to determine their social standing. Is Brown trying to explain the world, or is he simply presenting the Haitian culture as it existed? What other pieces of the story present uniquely Haitian culture?

(see the answer keys)

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