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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 does the "apelike" teenage boy spend his time doing while at the beach?

2. How does Mary react when Colin changes position while standing on the balcony?

3. Why does Colin suggest he and Mary depart the boat early?

4. How do Mary and Colin act as they ride the water taxi back to their hotel?

5. How does Colin initially react when Caroline and Robert begin making sexual advances towards him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Robert and Caroline initially do to Colin? How does he prevent this?

2. What does Colin confess to Mary as they are sitting on the beach? How does Mary react?

3. Why do Mary and Colin depart the riverboat early? How does their ultimate destination differ from their intended destination?

4. How do the police react to Mary's statement about Colin's murder? Why?

5. Why doesn't Mary respond much to Caroline's stories? What is likely the source of her silence?

6. What is wrong with Mary at the beginning of this chapter? What does Caroline tell Colin is wrong with her? What does Colin think they need to do?

7. Describe Mary and Colin's routine for the days following their visit to Robert and Caroline's apartment.

8. What is Mary's fantasy of "subjection and humiliation" for Colin? What is Colin's fantasy for Mary?

9. Describe the process of Mary realizing that Colin was in the photograph at Robert's apartment

10. What does Caroline request of Colin? Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of the themes in this novel is the concept of gender roles. Discuss the ways that this theme plays out in the novel and the overarching message about gender that the author is trying to make. Be sure to cite specific evidence from the novel to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

Throughout The Comfort of Strangers Ian McEwan foreshadows the tragic final event in the novel. Select three events in the novel that foreshadow this event. Discuss how these events act as foreshadowing and how their significance becomes evident when the final scene occurs.

Cite several specific examples from the novel to support your ideas.

Essay Topic 3

Throughout The Comfort of Strangers the author explores what it means to be a stranger. Discuss how characters in this novel are strangers focusing on what makes them strangers. Then discuss the author's view of the stranger. Is it better to be a stranger or to not be a stranger, according to McEwan? Why?

Cite several specific examples from the novel to support your ideas.

(see the answer keys)

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