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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 Bakha tell Sohini he is going to do when he sends her home with his cleaning equipment?

2. What habit of the British soldiers did Bakha find "Disgraceful" (12)?

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

4. What motivates the babu's son to agree to give Bakha lessons?

5. What did Bakha's uncle tell him when he first said that he wanted to be a "sahib" (30)?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Bakha's father.

2. What is implied by the narrator's description of how Bakha seems somehow allied with the fire?

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

4. What work do Bakha and his family do?

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

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

7. Describe the dynamic between Bakha and his friends.

8. How does Bakha feel as he enters the temple courtyard, and why does he have these feelings?

9. On his way into town, how does Bakha light his cigarette, and what does this incident demonstrate about how his caste status impacts his beliefs about himself?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

The abuse Bakha suffers at the hands of caste-Hindus is part of a larger motif of abuse in Untouchable. Write an essay in which you explore this larger motif. Consider such issues as Lakha's emotional and physical abuse of Bakja and the gender-related abuses that Sohini suffers as you demonstrate that there are many related forms of abuse in the novel. Support your assertions with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that takes and defends a position on Bakha's ability to function as a protagonist in Untouchable. Does he meet the qualification of driving the action as he pursues a goal, or does his outcaste status mean he lacks the agency to function as a protagonist? Defend your answer with evidence from the text, and explore the implications your answer has for the book's theme.

(see the answer keys)

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