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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. Who is the protagonist of Chapter 3?

2. What article of clothing does Toru Okada agree to wear to his meeting with Malta Cano in Chapter 3?

3. What object does Toru Okada discover in the well in Chapter 8?

4. What does Creta Kano cook for breakfast in Chapter 13?

5. How does Creta Kano explain her lack of clothes in the beginning of Chapter 13?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the unnamed boy see in Chapter 3?

2. What is the Clumsy Massacre of Chapter 9?

3. What story about a house in Koru Okada's neighborhood does his uncle tell in Chapter 10?

4. Why does Creta Kano become a prostitute?

5. Describe Toru Okada's dream in Chapter 2.

6. What information does Malt Kano provide Toru Okada in their first meeting in Chapter 3?

7. What two requests does Creta Kano make of Toru Okada in Chapter 14 and how does he respond?

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

9. Why are the Okadas estranged from the Watayas?

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

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 is a vast menagerie of different storylines and themes. One theme that lingers beneath the surface of the central narrative is the legacy of the Second World War and its psychically wounding effect. Write an essay about the war's place in the novel, in two parts below:

Part 1) Write a paragraph about the veterinarian and his days in the Chinese zoo as the allies approach. How do the few events mentioned in the book about this man indicate an absurd force driving the war? What does Murakami mean to get across about the war by the fact that these stories are told by two characters that never fought in World War Two?

Part 2) Write a paragraph about the war stories of Lieutenant Mamiya. To what extent does Mamiya's narrative illustrate the brutal realities of war? How have these experiences affected Mamiya is the War's end? How are they a counterpoint to the stories of the veterinarian?

Essay Topic 3

Haruki Murakami's novels almost always involve grown men who have not fully developed emotionally and several strong-willed women who force them to question their world-views. Write an essay about Toru Okada's relationship with the women of the novel. How is Toru's emotional growth stunted at the beginning of the novel? What shattering event forces him from his torpor at the beginning of the novel? Choose three women who enter his life after this event and discuss their relationship to him.

(see the answer keys)

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