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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. To which of the following is Mieczyś sent to study?

2. Where does Semperweiss have a small estate?

3. How many cigars is August allowed each day?

4. In what town had Mieczyś and his father consulted a professor?

5. By what holiday does Mieczyś think to return home?

Short Essay Questions

1. What memory of Klara wakes Mieczyś in the night?

2. Why does Mieczyś buy pistachio macaroons?

3. Why does Mieczyś avoid the other Poles at the sanatorium?

4. How does Mieczyś know Schwärmerei tastes like ants?

5. How does Semperweiss respond to the revelation of Mieczyś’s condition?

6. Why does Willi propose an outing as Thilo’s health declines?

7. What does August regard as the function of myth?

8. What gift does Thilo give Mieczyś?

9. How does Mieczyś know the stones used in the Tuntschi are not local?

10. To what does Mieczyś compare Emerentia’s robe?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How reliable are the narrators of the novel? What in the text indicates that reliability, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, some characters are given but one name, while others are given first- and surnames, and still others are accorded names and titles. What significance, if any, accrues to patterns of naming in the novel? If no significance accrues, what purpose might be served by the patterns of naming in the novel? How does The Empusium bear as much out?

Essay Topic 3

Conversely, given demonstrated efforts toward censorship in a number of countries, what would likely prompt bans of The Empusium? By which groups? Why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 437 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample