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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. Who is the president of the United States at the beginning of the book?

2. Where does Tod Friendly work after (in the narrator's experience) he is demoted?

3. How does the narrator feel about watching medical practices?

4. What is the name on the door where the narrator thinks that Tod Friendly has found an apartment?

5. What happens when the narrator has a moment of lucidity?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What are some of the terms the narrator coins in order to make things make sense?

3. Describe John Young/Hamilton de Souza/Odilo Unverdorben's feelings about fleeing to America after the war.

4. How does John Young's relationship with Irene progress?

5. Why does Tod Friendly enjoy being part of a crowd?

6. What is the narrator's relationship with Tod Friendly?

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

10. Describe the narrator's mindset at the beginning of the novel.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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