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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. Who has sat at this tree before Maali and Sena?

2. Why did Maali meet with Elsa at Hotel Leo?

3. Dr. Ranee says people in dreams are what?

4. Where does Maali say he will meet DD on the night of his death in Fifth Moon?

5. What will happen if Maali agrees to come to The Light?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Maali spend the night of his death?

2. How does Maali attempt to communicate to Jaki that the negatives are not important?

3. What does Dr. Ranee inform Maali about in their first interaction?

4. Why does Maali continue lamenting the loss of his photographs?

5. "I was there to witness. That is all. All those sunrises and all those massacres existed because I filmed them. Now, they are as dead as me” (244). What does this quote mean?

6. How does Dr. Ranee help Maali?

7. What happens the longer Maali occupies the In Between?

8. Why is Maali desperate to control Down There?

9. What does Maali think about while in the mara tree with Sena?

10. How does Maali's sense of truth and reality falter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Maali realize after the Department of Justice explosion? What does his time at the River of Births and in The Light reveal to him?

Essay Topic 2

Seven Moons is laced with off-beat humor; the author adds levity to heavier moments. In an interview with The Booker Prize, he said, of Sri Lankans, "We specialize in gallows humor and make jokes in the face of our crises.’" Has the author succeeded in bringing the humor of his nation to life?

Essay Topic 3

Seven Moons has been described as a cross-genre novel, merging magical realism with a ghost story, a whodunnit, and a state-of-the-nation piece of work. Discuss how Shehan Karunatilaka has allowed these genres to intersect and whether you think it is successful.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 633 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample