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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 do after he sits down in the alley where he has been unable to get any attention from the houses?

2. What is implied by Bakha's feeling like a "giant" when he looks back at the outcastes' colony after fleeing his home?

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

4. What does Chota suggest Bakha distract himself from the woes of his morning with?

5. What does Bakha stop to do on his way home from the hockey game?

Short Essay Questions

1. What characteristics of Rakha does the narrator stress in the description of him coming home from the barracks with food?

2. Why do the sweepers all spend so much time outdoors, even when they are not working?

3. What is the function of the passage of description of Bakha's family's outdoor kitchen?

4. What does Bakha tell himself about his decision to go to Ram Charan's sister's wedding, and what are his true motives?

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

6. What excuse does Bakha give for not bringing more food home, and how does his father's reply make him feel?

7. What causes Bakha to tell his father about his morning's misadventures, and how does his father react?

8. How does Bakha react to Chota's suggestion that the friends "catch hold" of the priest one day (84)?

9. What surprises Bakha about the hockey stick Charat Singh gives him, and how does he react?

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

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

Do some research into the impact of systemic oppression on parenting. Then, use this research to illuminate Lakha's choices as a parent and their impact on Bakha. Use evidence from Untouchable as well as from your research to support your assertions. Cite all sources in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

In what sense does the ending of Untouchable become almost a persuasive essay that evaluates three potential solutions to the problems faced by India's "untouchables"? Write an essay that discusses the solutions being offered and the ways that comic elements in the scene with Colonel Hutchinson, Bakha's reactions to Gandhi, and the emphasis on dialogue over narrative in the novel's final pages function as elements of evaluation of the three proposed solutions. Offer both quoted and paraphrased evidence from the text in support of your claims.

(see the answer keys)

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