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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. Where do William and Adso go to investigate in ‘Second Day’?

2. To what order did Brother William belong?

3. Where is Adso from originally?

4. What is missing from Venantius’s desk in ‘Second Day’?

5. What is the bulk of the monastery called?

Short Essay Questions

1. When does Adso write his manuscript?

2. Where did Adso meet William?

3. What does William help the Cellarer to find?

4. Who, in ‘Second Day,’ reveals that the library is a labyrinth?

5. How does Salvatore speak?

6. Where did the narrator find confirmation of the book’s veracity?

7. What must the men pass through to reach the library at night?

8. What do the monks debate at the first dinner?

9. Who originally translated the book?

10. What is William’s mission at the abbey?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Adso is our narrator for most of the book. Is he the protagonist of the story? How can we define a protagonist? If he is not, who is – and why?

Essay Topic 2

The abbey is organized according to strict power hierarchies. What are these hierarchies? How can characters move among them? What kind of actions, and feelings, do these hierarchies provoke? In what ways are they positive? Dangerous?

Essay Topic 3

A book is at the heart of the novel. Describe this book and its significance in the story. Why is it important? What does it lead men to do? What commentary might this lead us to about the nature of knowledge, of reading, of literature?

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