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. In what condition is John Young's body when he sails for Europe?

2. When does John Young sail for Europe?

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

4. Where would John Young have his amorous encounters with women?

5. What is Tod Friendly's job?

Short Essay Questions

1. What condition is Europe in when Odilo Unverdorben leaves?

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

3. What happens when the Reverend Kreditor talks to John Young about stormy weather?

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

5. Is there any place where the narrator's understanding is more accurate than Tod Friendly's?

6. Does Tod Friendly/John Young seem to be a good person?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Uncle Pepi and Reverend Nicholas Kreditor are the two male characters who affect Odilo's life. Compare and contrast these characters.

1. How are they similar and how are they different?

2. How do they affect Odilo's life? Do they help him? How do they hurt him?

Essay Topic 2

Irene and Herta both have children whom they cannot keep. Compare and contrast the effects of this loss on Herta and Irene. How is the experience similar for the two women? How is it different? How does it affect their lives and their relationships with Odilo Unverdorben?

Essay Topic 3

The narrator feels an almost religious awe at Uncle Pepi's power to create people.

1. Who else seems to have this power, and how do they use it? What are the effects of this power?

2. Are there any instances where characters resist this sense of awe with reason or pragmatism or some other form of understanding that protects them?

3. Is respect for that power a historical fact that was only exhibited in the Holocaust and select other historical instances? Or is respect for that power a stage of development, which has to be followed by regret and acts of contrition? Cite specific examples from the text in your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 812 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample