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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. How does a book save Ashoke's life?

2. How does Ashoke's career advance in Chapter 3?

3. How does Gogol/Nakhil feel when people who used to call him Gogol use his new name?

4. What does Gogol's father say after giving him a special gift for his fourteenth birthday?

5. How does the breakup between Gogol/Nakhil and Ruth happen?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Gogol look forward to his fourteenth birthday party?

2. What does Ashoke think about while Ashima is in labor?

3. What type of home do the Gangulis settle down in to raise their family?

4. What job is Ashoke offered after finishing his college studies?

5. What happens when Gogol's train coming home from college is late?

6. What did Ashoke swear to do during his long recovery from the injuries he received during a train wreck when he was a young man?

7. Why doesn't the school call Gogol by the name Nikhil?

8. What does Ashoke do for Gogol's fourteenth birthday?

9. What do the Ganguli family do during Ashoke's sabbatical?

10. Who befriends Ashima at the hospital and how?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The author uses Gogol's romantic relationships to explore different aspects of his character. Follow the development of Gogol's romantic life throughout the book and examine Gogol's character in each relationship. Cite examples from the book to support your answers.

Essay Topic 2

The author's descriptive style of writing is simple and straight-forward, helping her win a Pulitzer Prize. She uses it for both the story itself and to describe the settings. Do you believe this style works for both? Does this style work to delve deeply into the character's minds? Tell why you think the way you do. Did she do a better job of describing Indian immigrants or every-day native-born Americans? Tell why or why not. Cite examples from the novel to support your case.

Essay Topic 3

The anger of second-generation immigrants who feel they are treated as second-class citizens is a theme in many novels. In this novel, the author uses the second-generation Indian immigrant Moushumi as an example of this anger. What happens in the novel that she sees as slights to her Indian heritage? How do these imagined slights affect her? How does her resulting anger affect her marriage to Gogol? Cite examples from the book to support your answers.

(see the answer keys)

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