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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 does Marta drink at breakfast?

2. What is Vaclav waiting for outside the church?

3. What color is Utz's carpet?

4. What German city does Utz's grandmother send him to?

5. What stands at the far end of the table in Hotel Bristol?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the narrator describe Utz?

2. How does Utz develop his theory about porcelain collecting?

3. How did Rabbi Loew use Yossel?

4. Where does the golem legend have its roots?

5. How did the communist state divert people's attentions from the Christian rituals of Utz's funeral?

6. How did Utz lose his temper with the secret police?

7. How could a rabbi destroy a golem?

8. Why does Dr. Orlik study the household fly?

9. Why does the narrator's friend send him to meet Utz?

10. Describe the stuffed bear in the Hotel Bristol.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the novel's chronological setting.

1. What were the main concerns during the 1980s? How does the author express these concerns?

2. How would the author change the novel if it was set in today's society?

Essay Topic 2

Choose one of the following and discuss how it affects the tone of the novel and helps to express character and theme.

1. Setting

2. Point of view

3. Structure

4. Language

Essay Topic 3

Away from the main character, examine the way the author uses the other characters in the book. When does he introduce and take them away from the story? What effect does it have on the story?

(see the answer keys)

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