View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Luzhin's championship game against Turati, how does Turati open the game?

2. Who interrupts the chess game?

3. What does Luzhin's future wife's mother think of his profession as a chess champion?

4. During their walk the morning after the party, what does Luzhin's father suggest he take up?

5. What business does Valentinov go into after leaving Luzhin?

Short Essay Questions

1. The morning after the party, what are relations like between Luzhin's father, his aunt, and his mother?

2. How does Luzhin's father die?

3. How does Luzhin respond to his fiancee's parents' home?

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

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

6. What ability does Luzhin compare his ability to read chess notation with?

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

8. How does Luzhin's father compare his son to fictional characters?

9. How does Luzhin's father feel when he finally hears that his son is a prodigy?

10. How does Luzhin feel about his aunt?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Luzhin is not a normal person. Discuss normalcy in the novel.

1) Luzhin is not normal. Is this necessarily a bad thing? To what extent is society responsible for Luzhin's problems, in trying to force him to be "normal"? Does Luzhin want to be normal?

2) What does "normal" mean in the novel? What does it mean to Luzhin and the people who surround him?

3) How difficult is it for Luzhin to do normal things? Why?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss social norms and expectations in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin fit into society, and how do the norms and expectations of society affect him?

2) How are the normal, everyday tasks that people undertake different for Luzhin? How does this affect his ability to fit into society?

3) How do Luzhin's in-laws represent social norms and expectations, and how do they perceive Luzhin?

Essay Topic 3

Luzhin is a master chess player. Discuss chess in the novel.

1) When Luzhin sees a chess board, the pieces are just placeholders. He perceives something entirely abstract behind the board. What is it that Luzhin perceives? Why is it appealing to him? What does his relationship with chess show about his personality?

2) Near the end of the novel, Luzhin sees his life as a chess game. How is his life like a game of chess? Who is his opponent? What is he attempting to win? How does the chess analogy show how Luzhin is perceiving his world and his limitations in perceiving the world?

3) Why does Luzhin feel the need to hide his love for chess? In what ways is Luzhin ambivalent about chess? Is chess truly deadly unhealthy for Luzhin, as his psychiatrist says?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 880 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample