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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 personal question does Toru Okada ask Kumiko in their internet chat in Chapter 22?

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

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

4. What has happened to Noboru Wataya in the realm of the hotel in Chapter 33?

5. At the beginning of Chapter 25, why is Toru heartened by his life?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Toru overcome Noboru Wataya in Chapter 35?

3. How does May Kasahar's worldview change in Chapter 36?

4. How does Toru Okada's opinion of his wife change over the course of the novel?

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

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

7. What happens to Noboru Wataya in Chapter 37?

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

9. Why is Toru content in Chapter 25?

10. That is Nutmeg's concern in Chapter 24?

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

Perhaps the most central theme of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is the interconnectedness of humanity and the impossibility of escaping said interconnectedness. Write an essay about several characters' attempts to distance themselves from humanity and how they are pulled back:

Part 1) Why does Kumiko try to alienate herself from her family? How does she go about doing this, and how is she pulled back into the Wataya sphere? To what extent is Kumiko destroyed emotionally and existentially by her return to her family?

Part 2) Why does May Kasahara choose to leave Tokyo, and where does she go? Is this flight indicative of a desire to be separated from the society at large? Who is the only person with whom she maintains communication? How does she rediscover her interconnectedness with society?

Part 3) How is Toru Okada the definition of social alienation at the beginning of the novel? Who does he have in his life, and what does he do with his days? Write out the steps by which he leaves his house and accepts other into his life.

Essay Topic 3

Lieutenant Mamiya has perhaps the most extended personal narrative of the novel after Toru Okada. By the end of the novel, we know exactly what happened to Mamiya, in detail during the war. Write an essay, beginning with an overview of the travails this man faced in China, Mongolia, and Eastern Russia. ow did he survive, and what malicious figure continued to cross paths with him? What experience did Mamiya have in the war that was similar to Toru's? In conclusion, how is Mamiya's life a warning to Toru?

(see the answer keys)

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