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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 does Ashoke do while pacing in the mens' waiting room at the hospital?

2. What does the Ganguli family do in the beginning of their life in their new home, in the evenings?

3. Who else visits the baby Gogol in the hospital?

4. What does Gogol think when his parents tell him they are going to India for eight months?

5. What is Ashima's second pregnancy like?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Ashima and Ashoke feel about Ruth when they learn of their son's girlfriend?

2. What happens to Gogol and Sonia while the family are sightseeing in India?

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

4. How are the Ganguli family plans changed while preparing for a visit to India when Gogol is a year old?

5. What is Ashima doing when her water breaks?

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

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

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

9. Why don't Ashima and Ashoke have a name picked out for their baby?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

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

Moushumi enters the book somewhat late in the story and doesn't remain to the end, but she is central to the development of Gogol's character. Trace her actions through the story. Why does she act as she does? Are her actions pivotal to the plot or can the story follow the same course to the same conclusion without her character? Why or why not? Support your answer with examples from the book.

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