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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. Why does the Ghost in the forest tell the Bright Man his father didn't come on the trip?

2. What does the narrator ask his new companion about the gray town?

3. Where did the Tousle-Headed Poet want to go, but couldn't because of financial troubles?

4. What country's alignment in the war troubled the Tousle-Headed Poet?

5. What will go on spreading indefinitely?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the man in the bowler hat tell the narrator the gray town seemed so desolate?

2. What has the Conscientious Objector encountered since his death? Why is he on the bus?

3. What did the two chaps find when they set out to look for Napoleon?

4. Describe the setting in which the narrator finds himself in at the beginning of the book.

5. Describe the bus and the bus driver.

6. Where has the Hard-Bitten Ghost been? What does he say of these places?

7. What does the narrator try to pick up after getting off the bus?

8. How long does the narrator travel on the river? How far does he go?

9. Where does the narrator sit on the bus? Who joins him? What does this character impart?

10. How does the Hard-Bitten Ghost respond to the narrator's suggestion that they will grow more solid as they acclimate to Heaven?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the role that "pride" plays in The Great Divorce. Which characters are afflicted with the sin of pride? How? What does the author illuminate regarding pride as a sin? Does he have a "moral" regarding this subject?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the narrator's actions and objectives in The Great Divorce. What changes does his character undergo? What does he represent symbolically?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the themes of love and lust in The Great Divorce. How are "defective love" and "lust" compared? How does the author exemplify this through parable?

(see the answer keys)

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