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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. How old is Ram Charan's sister?

2. What word does Colonel Hutchinson object to Bakha using to describe him?

3. How much money was Gulabo given for her daughter's hand in marriage?

4. What do all of the stories about the solar topee have in common?

5. What instruction does Charat Singh give Bakha about the hockey stick?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe some of the common elements in Bakha's dreams when he falls asleep in the alley.

2. What are the stories about how the hat came to hang on the cantonment wall?

3. How does Chota react differently to Bakha's stories about the priest and the woman at the alley house?

4. When Bakha is on his way to see Charat Singh about the hockey stick, what strange feeling does he have about the errand?

5. Although Bakha is honored by Charat Singh's actions, in what sense are they also condescending and dismissive of Bakha's humanity?

6. What stories about Charat Singh's hockey career does Bakha think about while he is waiting for Charat Singh to appear?

7. When Bakha is lying under a tree outside the barracks, what does he decide about taking so much time away from work?

8. Even before Charat Singh gives Bakha the hockey stick, what does he do that causes Bakha to feel very honored?

9. How does the first woman in the alley houses treat Bakha and the sadhu very differently?

10. Describe Bakha's memory of seeing Ram Charan's sister on her way home from the brook one morning before dawn.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Now that you have finished Untouchable, you know that the novel's final section becomes much more explicit in its analysis of Hinduism. Write an essay in which you explicate the ideas about Hinduism discussed in the novel's final pages. Then, offer an analysis of the relationship between these ideas and the earlier parts of Bakha's story. Support your assertions with evidence from the text.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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