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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 Maali promise Dr. Ranee in the Fifth Moon?

2. Who tries to convince Elsa to negotiate with the Minister?

3. Who explains that Maali’s pain is a symptom of his attempts to escape the In Between?

4. Who develops Maali's negatives?

5. What is the power that Maali learns in the In Between?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Maali hurt DD?

2. Why do others in the Afterlife continue to discourage Maali's attachment to Down There?

3. What does Maali tell Dr. Ranee after emerging from the dreamscape?

4. What does Dr. Ranee teach Maali about good and evil?

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

6. How does the author use Sena’s character?

7. Why is Maali desperate to control Down There?

8. Over the course of the Fourth excerpt, how does the author use Maali’s sorrow?

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

10. "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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Maali’s last wish before he dies?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

"Why is Sri Lanka Number One in suicides?" asks the girl peering through thick glasses. "Are we that much sadder or violent than the rest of the world?" "Who the fuck cares?" says the hunched figure, as a lady in pigtails does her high jump over the edge. "It’s because we have just the right amount of education to understand that the world is cruel," says the schoolgirl. "And just enough corruption and inequality to feel powerless against it" (285).

What might this excerpt from the text say about social conditions within Sri Lanka during the civil war, and why was the suicide rate in the country so high?

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