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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. What is mescal?

2. What kind of atmosphere does the bus have?

3. How does Yvonne keep herself busy during the bull fight?

4. What does the widow lady predict for the consul and Yvonne?

5. What kinds of people are on the bus that Yvonne, Hugh, and the consul take together?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What does the consul's desire for the sun not to set foreshadow?

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

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

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

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

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

10. How does Yvonne ultimately die?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze three of the consul's hallucinations and discuss 1) what each shows the reader about the consul's declining health as well as 2) at least one literary device Lowry uses in each hallucinatory episode to convey what is happening, in the consul's mind, to the reader.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss three things that Yvonne's passion for and knowledge of astronomy symbolizes in "Under the Volcano."

(see the answer keys)

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