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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 May Kasahara invite Toru Okada to do the following day in Chapter 5?

2. What animal inhabits the disgusting island that is the subject of Toru Okada's metaphorical story in Chapter 3?

3. What does the woman do to Toru's mark in Chapter 4?

4. What era does Creta Kano's style of dress remind Toru Okada of?

5. In Chapter 8, how does Creta Kano say she eventually managed to pay off her debts?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does May Kasahara describe her situation in Chapter 5?

2. Why are the Okadas estranged from the Watayas?

3. Describe the interchange Toru has with the woman on the bench in Chapter 2?

4. What painful admission does May Kasahara make in Chapter 15?

5. Describe Toru Okada's life at the beginning of the novel.

6. Why do Koru and Kumiko Okada meet with Mr. Honda?

7. What happens when Toru goes to the appointed address in Chapter 4?

8. Why is Lieutenant Mamiya uncomfortable with his mission with Yanamoto?

9. Why does Creta Kano become a prostitute?

10. What financial decision does Toru Okada make at the beginning of Book 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Regularly throughout the novel, characters discover something deeply spiritual about themselves, brought about by their close proximity to death. Write an essay about three of these instances and their meaning in the novel:

Part 1) Describe the harrowing experience Lieutenant Mamiya experiences in Mongolia. How is he affected by his day in the dry well before being rescued? What changed in his outlook of the world?

Part 2) At what point does Creta Kano, after years of constant and unremitting pain, achieve some type of relief? What does this transition have to do with a proximity to death? How is this change connected to her eventual, more ethereal profession?

Part 3) When does Toru Okada develop the blue-black mark on his face? What traumatic and somewhat dangerous occurrence does this follow? What new and spiritual powers does this mark seem to imbue Toru with?

Essay Topic 2

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, beginning even with its title, is a novel that draws mystically from the animal world. Animals serve as harbingers and, to some extent, good-will ambassadors. Write an essay on the roles of three animals in the book. How is each animal introduced? What is its purpose, and how does this purpose become clear by the end of the novel? Does the appearance of this animal have positive or negative connotations?

Part 1) The ducks by May Kasahara's factory

Part 2) Toru's cat

Part 3) The Wind-Up Bird

Essay Topic 3

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a hodgepodge of different types of narrative forms, with some chapters wildly divergent from or seeming unrelated to, the central first-person narrative of Toru Okada. Write an essay about several chapters that are different from the main narrative. How do they connect to this central narrative? What story do they tell? Is there a particular theme that these other chapters serve to illuminate?

Part 1) The tabloid articles.

Part 2) The letters from the factory town.

Part 3) The third person chapters.

(see the answer keys)

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