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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 Toru do in the dreams Kumiko regularly has?

2. Where does Toru meet Malto Kano in Chapter 30?

3. What is Kumiko planning to do in Chapter 38?

4. What sound awakens Toru at the end of Chapter 37?

5. In Chapter 10, May Kasahara's boss tells her that genes determine what percentage of whether someone will go bald?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the tabloid in Chapter 21 determine about the dummy corporation that owns the hanging house?

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

3. What sad reality does May Kasahara admit to in Chapter 18's letter?

4. Who does M consult a healer in Chapter 12?

5. Describe Cinnamon.

6. What does the boy in Chapter 11 find in the bag and what does he do with it?

7. What happens to Noboru Wataya in Chapter 37?

8. What new offer does Ushikawa make to Toru Okada in Chapter 16?

9. How does Lieutenant Mamiya meet Boris the Manskinner for the second time?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about Nutmeg and Cinnamon. What is their function within the novel? Begin the essay by discussing their lives before meeting Toru Okada and how Nutmeg comes to be fascinated with the protagonist. What about the mother and son makes them unusual and eccentric? In the final paragraph, discuss the possibility that Cinnamon is the author of the novel. What is on his computer that would lead a reader to this conclusion?

Essay Topic 3

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a n example of magical realist literature. In it, the fantastical and the realistic intermingle without indication that this is strange in any way. Write an essay about this intermingling, using Toru Okada as a surrogate for the reader. What fantastical events does Toru experience, and how does he react to them? Is he shocked, or are they seamlessly integrated into the rest of his life? What function do these events serve in his day to day existence?

(see the answer keys)

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