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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 does Luzhin's future wife perceive him when she first meets him?

2. When Luzhin's fiancee's father meets Luzhin, what does he offer the chess champion?

3. When Luzhin runs away from home, what does he learn from his aunt?

4. What kind of party does Luzhin's father give in honor of Luzhin's grandfather?

5. What did Luzhin place in the German chess tournament in his youth?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Luzhin react to being caught cutting school?

2. When Luzhin watches the chess game between his classmates, what move excites him?

3. What problem does Luzhin have getting to his game with his final rival?

4. How does Luzhin's father die?

5. Who does Luzhin nearly run into on the first day he skips school?

6. What does Luzhin ask his fiancee to do, on the second day she comes to his Berlin chess tournament?

7. Before playing with his son, how does Luzhin's father consider his own chess abilities?

8. Why does Luzhin's mother leave her husband and son to return to Russia, and how does Luzhin's father react?

9. Describe Luzhin's future wife when he meets her in Germany.

10. Why does Luzhin's father decide that the boy he wants to write about, based on his son, will die young?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss marriage in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin's parent's marriage play out? What example of marriage does Luzhin have as a child?

2) Why does Luzhin marry? What does he expect from marriage? What does his wife expect from marriage? What do others expect from their marriage?

3) What other examples of marriage are there in the novel? What is Luzhin's wife's parents' marriage like? What does the novel say about marriage in general?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the relationships of parents and children in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin relate to his father? How does this relationship affect Luzhin throughout his life? How does this relationship evoke the relationship of Luzhin's father and grandfather?

2) What do parents expect from their children in the novel? What does Luzhin's father expect from him? What about his mother? What do Luzhin's wife's parents expect from her?

3) How do parents and children feel about each other? Do they love each other? What other emotions are related to parents and children?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Luzhin's character.

1) How is Luzhin different from other people? What are the consequences to him in his life?

2) Why is Luzhin obsessed with chess? What does Luzhin see and enjoy that most people don't?

3) What kind of world would Luzhin be happy in? In what ways is Luzhin mismatched to society, and why?

(see the answer keys)

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