View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does the narrator believe the weather is always good?

2. How does the narrator know that Tod Friendly speaks a second language?

3. With whom does Hamilton de Souza meet at the Vatican?

4. Where does Odilo Unverdorben pass through on his way south at the end of the war?

5. Whom does John Young date?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator feel about John Young's work?

2. How does the narrator experience Tod's kindness to children?

3. What is the key to substance for the narrator?

4. Can the reader sympathize with the narrator's sense of horror at John Young's work?

5. Describe Reverend Nicholas Kreditor's appearance.

6. What is the narrator's relationship with Irene?

7. How does Tod feel about his physical body in the first chapter?

8. How does John Young/Hamilton de Souza feel about his body?

9. What habits does Tod Friendly pick up over the course of the first chapter?

10. Describe how the narrator feels about Tod Friendly's work?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Babies are a recurring image in Time's Arrow. Cite three instances where babies appear and describe their significance in the context where they occur; then describe their symbolic significance. What qualities do they represent in Odilo's life? In the narrator's? In the other characters?

Essay Topic 2

By the time he gets to America as John Young and then Tod Friendly, Odilo Unverdorben is on a mission to redeem himself.

1. Whose forgiveness does he seek? Does he attain it from them? Why or why not?

2. Who would Odilo have had to go to, to get forgiveness? Is there anyone with authority who could absolve him of his actions?

3. Is it enough that Odilo tries to redeem himself? Do his actions balance each other? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Men and women have different perspectives on the events of this book.

1. How do men's and women's perspectives differ? How are they similar? How would you characterize men's perspectives, and how would you characterize women's? Do individuals have both male and female characteristics?

2. Where do men's and women's perspectives and values come into conflict? Whose values or whose power wins those conflicts?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 832 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample