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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 is ironic about Bakha's friends teasing him about his interest in "fashun" (26)?

2. On page 9, what does the narrator compare Bakha's capacity for work to?

3. Why did a rich merchant once give Lakha a buffalo cow?

4. Who is the author of Untouchable?

5. Why does Bakha not feel sad about his mother's death?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Describe the conditions in which Bakha's family lives.

3. What rhetorical purpose is served by the long passage in which Pundit Kali Nath thinks about all of the foods he has recently eaten?

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

5. What seeming contradictions does Bakha notice in the treatment of cows?

6. How do the incidents that take place with Bakha and Sohini at the temple reinforce the text's claims about power and status?

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

8. What mixture of feelings does Bakha have about Sohini as they make their way home from the temple?

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

10. Describe Bakha's father.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the symbol of the solar topee in conjunction with the text's references to heat, fire, and sun. Write an essay in which you analyze the solar topee as a part of a textual motif regarding how authority is misused to shield people from accountability for their inhumane actions. Offer both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text in support of your claims.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that analyzes the significance of the images of nature in Untouchable. Describe the characteristics of these images and then analyze their function. Offer both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text in support of your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Look up the postcolonial term "mimicry." Then, write an essay in which you explore the relationship of this term to the choices that Bakha and his friends make. Take a position about why they do what they do, what the consequences--positive and negative--are for them, and what messages about both status and colonization are being transmitted through this aspect of Untouchable. Defend your ideas with textual evidence from the novel as well as from online sources, and be sure to cite your sources in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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