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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 does the bus stop for a bathroom break?

2. What does the consul read as he continues to head up the mountain after he storms out of his hotel?

3. Why does Laruelle leave the consul alone in his own home?

4. What Biblical allusion does the consul use after the trio's bus ride?

5. What does Hugh buy as he and Yvonne are searching for the consul?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why dues Hugh jump into the arena to try to ride the bull?

2. What is the real reason why the consul wants to stay at Laruelle's house even though Yvonne wants to leave?

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

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

5. What about Yvonne's letter depresses the consul as he is heading up the mountain?

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

7. How do Hugh and Yvonne pass the afternoon at the hotel with the consul?

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

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

10. What does Laruelle point out to the consul about why his lack of excitement about Yvonne's return is ironic?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

List three ways that the story of the German soldiers' deaths and the consul's role in them impact the reader's view of the consul as a character before he actually arrives in "Under the Volcano."

Essay Topic 2

What is the reader supposed to assume happens to Hugh? Make sure to use direct evidence from at least three instances in the text that you feel supports your thesis.

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.

(see the answer keys)

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