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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. When was Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev born?

2. Where is the bugging device in Zuckerman's room?

3. What does Olga suggest Zuckerman do to show the authorities he is not afraid at breakfast?

4. When did Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev take the office of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union?

5. What does Olga tell Zuckerman is the only freedom left in this country?

Short Essay Questions

1. What position does Blecha hold now in the narrative? What did he recently offer to help Bolotka with?

2. When does Zuckerman awake to a call from Olga? What does the tell him in his hotel room?

3. What symbolic statement does Olga make about freedom in her last meeting with Zuckerman?

4. What does Olga tell Zuckerman he wants to gain by getting the manuscript? Why is her situation different?

5. What is Bolotka's apartment like? What does he tell Zuckerman about his room?

6. Why and how does Olga eventually give Zuckerman the manuscript?

7. What does Olga ask Zuckerman to tell her in his hotel room? What does she suggest about his speech?

8. Who asks for Olga's identification at the hotel? What is Olga's response?

9. What does Novak represent symbolically in the narrative?

10. Why did the university tell Bolotka he was unable to change majors?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Sisovsky's father's story as described to Zuckerman in pages 18-23. What power did the Gestapo have? How common was it for Gestapo officers to protect Jews?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of Jewish identity, and how Philip Roth incorporates this theme into "The Prague Orgy" and his other works. What works by Roth are centered on the theme? How does "theme" differ from "subject" in a work of literature?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Roth's literary allusions to Franz Kafka in the novel. Who discusses Kafka and in what context? What is symbolic about this?

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This section contains 904 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample