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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. Why is Mamiya given more access to the Russian camp than most Japanese prisoners in his Chapter 30 letter?

2. What is missing from the bottom of the well in Chapter 31?

3. What does Toru do in the dreams Kumiko regularly has?

4. Who does Nutmeg suspect is the source of the tabloid stories?

5. In Chapter 37, what has happens to Noboru Wataya in real life?

Short Essay Questions

1. What plan does Kumiko reveal in Chapter 17?

2. How did Nutmeg first discover her healing powers?

3. What circle of connections does Toru Okada uncover in Chapter 23?

4. In Chapter 22, what does Kumiko say about her current state of mind?

5. What two bits of strange information does Malta Kano provide Toru in Chapter 30?

6. How does Nutmeg's marriage end in Chapter 20?

7. What happens to Noboru Wataya in Chapter 37?

8. Describe Mamiya's assassination attempt on Boris in Chapter 32.

9. How is Toru implicated in an assassination attempt in Chapter 33?

10. What offer does Noboru Wataya make Toru Okada in Chapter 13?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Dreams play a key role in the advancing of plot in Murakami's novel. Write an essay, discussing the role that dreams play in Toru Okada's journey. Who does he meet while in a dream state? What new information does he gain from these dreams? Write a paragraph about each type of dream the Toru has over the course of the novel. As a conclusion, discuss whether the dream-world of the novel has any concrete bearing on the waking world.

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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