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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 British brand of cigarettes do Bakha and his friends smoke?

2. What are the walls of the houses of the outcastes made of?

3. What does the priest tell Sohini he wants her to do?

4. What word does Bakha use to refer to British soldiers?

5. What gesture does Bakha continuously make in order to try to placate the man that he has bumped on the street?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is insincere about Bakha's offer to rub his father's side with oil?

2. What work do Bakha and his family do?

3. What is the "fashun" that Bakha and his friends adhere to, and why do they do it? (4)

4. What does the description of the town as Bakha enters it emphasize, and how does this foreshadow what will happen later, when Bakha bumps into someone?

5. Describe the job that Bakha does after he has cleaned all of the latrines twice.

6. How does the incident with the crowd in the street draw to a close, finally?

7. Describe Bakha's morning before he leaves his family's house.

8. Why is the man that Bakha bumps into in the street so angry?

9. What seems ironic to Bakha when he thinks about the reason that schools will not admit outcaste students?

10. What altercation does Sohini get into at the well, and why does it happen?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that affirms, refutes, or qualifies the following statement: "Despite surface-level criticisms of British imperialism, Anand's novel Untouchable functions as a defense of the British Raj in India." Support your assertions with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay in which you analyze Untouchable as a circadian novel. Which elements of the novel might be de-emphasized or even omitted in a novel that takes place over a longer time frame? How does the inclusion and emphasis of these elements help shape the reader's understanding of the novel's meaning? How is the reader's empathy for the novel's characters affected by its circadian form? How does the time frame of the novel affect the reader's perception of the problems Bakha faces? How does it impact the reader's faith in the potential solutions offered near the novel's end? Support your assertions with evidence from the text; if you use outside sources, be sure to cite these in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

What is the relationship between Bakha's desire for an education and his individuality? Do other outcastes in his community seem to yearn for education as he does? What is the source of his yearning? What does his desire to be educated say about him as a person? Certainly, expanded access to knowledge and the written word may increase his satisfaction with life. But what other consequences might it have? Consider how an education would likely change him and his relationships, what time taken and money paid for lessons would mean as far as the distribution of family resources and responsibilities, and to what degree either Bakha or his community might benefit from him obtaining an education. Support your assertions with evidence from the text; if you use outside sources, be sure to cite these in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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