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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 Luzhin do the previous Christmas with the chocolates meant for his aunt?

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

3. What excuse does Luzhin give the first day he skips school?

4. Where do the people at the chess tournament tell Luzhin to go?

5. When Luzhin comes back to his family's house, where in the house does he hide?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What happens when Luzhin is found hiding in his family's house at the end of Chapter 1?

5. How does Luzhin feel about his aunt?

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

7. Why does Luzhin hide during his father's party?

8. How doe Luzhin's fiancee seem like a dream to him?

9. What authors does Luzhin like to read?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Luzhin's father expects his son to follow the patterns of the father's novels. Discuss Luzhin's father's expectations.

1) What effects do his father's expectations have on Luzhin? How much is Luzhin aware of his father's expectations, and how does he react to them?

2) How are Luzhin's father's expectations echoed in his wife's expectations?

3) What would Luzhin's father's relationship with a normal, average son be like? How would his expectations play out?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss fulfillment in the novel.

1) What motivates characters to pursue the activities they pursue? What motivates Luzhin? What motivates his wife?

2) Where do characters in the novel find fulfillment? Are any of the characters successful in feeling fulfilled?

3) What prevents fulfillment? How do characters perceive others' desires for or quests for fulfillment? How do characters conflict over what makes them fill fulfilled?

Essay Topic 3

After Luzhin's breakdown, he goes through a period of retirement from chess, in which he in many way relives his childhood. Discuss this repetition of the past and the air of fatalism it has.

1) Is Luzhin fated to be drawn back to chess? What forces seem to draw him irrevocably to chess?

2) Is Luzhin replaying his childhood because the forces of his character naturally cause him to have the same relationships and do the same types of things? Is this fate? Can Luzhin change? Can the world around him change?

3) In what ways is Luzhin's childhood different from his adulthood with his wife? How does Luzhin change? Does this show any ability to break free of the repetition?

(see the answer keys)

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