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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 Supervisor Tsukada say when someone asks if Supervisor Gondo joined the Woman in the Purple Skirt and other staff members a few nights earlier?

2. What is significant about the 13th floor of the hotel, where the Woman works after she completes her training?

3. What does the Woman in the Purple Skirt receive after she completes her training?

4. What does one of the girls in the park say she has at home with the hotel logo on it?

5. What was the Woman in the Purple Skirt carrying when she and the narrator collided outside of the elevator?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator know the Woman in the Purple Skirt met the director on her day off from work?

2. Where do the director and the Woman go on their date after the coffee shop? Which place do they stay the longest?

3. What happens when Supervisor Tsukada confronts the Woman in the Purple Skirt about the stolen hotel items?

4. How does the staff behavior toward the Woman change after they find out about her affair with the director? How does the Woman respond?

5. Describe the scene when the Woman shares a box of chocolates with the children at the park. What do they discuss?

6. What do the director and the Woman do while at the bar? Does anyone speak to them? If so, what do they say?

7. What happens when the staff learn someone is selling hotel items at the local bazaar? Who do they think is behind it?

8. How does the narrator come to memorize the director's home phone number?

9. Why is the narrator more likely to see the Woman at the park than at work after the Woman completes her training?

10. Why is the narrator annoyed with the way the Woman explains the bus incident to the director and others? What does she imagine doing the next time she has a chance?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a brief essay analyzing the title, The Woman in the Purple Skirt. Explore the ways in which this title connects to the plot and themes of obsession and loneliness.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay exploring the significance of the children in the park in The Woman in the Purple Skirt. What do they represent? How do they develop the narrative?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Imamura’s focus on the theme of obsession as presented in the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 868 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample