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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. Where do Yvonne and Hugh chase the consul after dinner at the hotel?

2. What small charge do the police accuse the consul of?

3. What does the consul think he sees as the bus passes a park?

4. What does Yvonne not want to see at the bull fight?

5. What does Yvonne tell the consul her hopes for them for the future are?

Short Essay Questions

1. As the consul is having sex with the whore, what are the voices in his head telling him?

2. What do Laruelle and Hugh have in common from their childhoods?

3. How does the increasingly unfavorable weather influence Yvonne's feeling of foreboding?

4. Why is Yvonne really in such a hurry to leave Laruelle's home?

5. What does Yvonne see the bull as a symbol of?

6. Why does the consul fail to understand why Yvonne and Hugh get so upset during dinner?

7. Why do the police accuse the consul of being a communist?

8. As he reflects on his life at the hotel, what does the consul think about his happiness?

9. Why does the consul want the sun to stand still after the bus ride he takes with Yvonne and Hugh?

10. How does the consul respond to the children who beg him for money after he leaves a cantina?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the characters of Yvonne and the whore with whom the consul sleeps right before his death. What message is Lowry trying to convey through these two characters?

Essay Topic 2

Given what you know about Malcolm Lowry, write an argument about how "Under the Volcano" is semi-autobiographical. Make sure to use facts from Lowry's life as well as direct evidence from the text to support your position.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss at least three ways that Lowry's placement of the novel in a foreign country (foreign to the consul, that is) has an impact on the novel.

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