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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 Maya do after the narrator tells her what he thinks about her?

2. Where does the narrator travel?

3. How does the narrator's ankle feel?

4. What happens to the narrator at the end of this chapter?

5. What past life experience does Williams experience?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Wil tell the narrator about Soul Groups?

2. What does Maya say about healing?

3. What does Long Eagle say about the valley in Chapter 1?

4. What does the narrator tell Maya about what he believes is her purpose and how does she react?

5. What does the narrator do that injures him and why did he do it?

6. What does Wil tell the narrator is the reason for him disappearing in Peru?

7. What does Wil and the narrator become aware of in Maya's dream?

8. What does Webber intuitively feel as he and the narrator talk and what happens right after that feeling?

9. What does Wil say he sees in Maya's dream?

10. What kind of work does Webber do and what does he believe about that work?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The main narrative thrust is coming from energy of exploration rather than confrontation - in other words, the narrator is discovering the nature of his story's central conflict rather than playing out that conflict itself. Yes, the surges of dissonance create a certain degree of conflict and tension, but the narrator in Chapter 7, as in previous chapters, is reacting to that conflict rather than engaging in it, going deeper into what is essentially research rather than taking steps to ensure change.

1. Explain, with examples, why you think the main narrative thrust is coming from energy of exploration rather than confrontation.

2. Why do the surges of dissonance create a certain degree of conflict and tension in the novel? Explain why you think they create enough conflict and tension or if the author should have had more conflict. Use examples to support your opinion.

3. Discuss why the author reacts to the conflict in the story rather than engaging in it. Use examples to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 2

In Chapter 6, and indeed throughout the novel, storytelling can clearly be seen as a function of thematic agenda - what happens happens because the author wants to make his philosophical point. This manifests here perhaps more blatantly and directly from other novels without such overt agendas, but at its core the purpose of storytelling remains the same no matter what story is being told - to awaken some sort of reaction and/or increased insight in the reader.

1. Explain, with examples why the first sentence above is true.

2. Why do you think a novel that overtly has an agenda would use most of the actions of the characters, the subplots, the behaviors and situations to advance that agenda more so than a typical novel.

3. Do you think the purpose of storytelling is the same no matter what story is being told - to awaken some sort of reaction and/or increased insight in the reader? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Some of the theories expounded in this section are certainly interesting - the idea, for example, that past unresolved conflicts are the source for present tension, and the idea that Soul Groups are unified by what might be described (but which actually aren't) as a talent.

1. Discuss what the ramifications would be for individuals if much of their behavior and personality were a result of previous lives.

2. If Soul Groups were indeed true, discuss in detail why it would be logical for them to be grouped as like talents.

3. For the sake of argument, assume reincarnation is true and argue for or against the idea that animals also experience reincarnation.

(see the answer keys)

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