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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 the rumor Ferdinand spreads in the town?

2. From where does the name Metty come?

3. How does the President manage the war in the town and surrounding area?

4. How are the east coast slaves different from those taken on the west coast of Africa?

5. What does Ferdinand promise to do but does not do?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is going through Salim's mind as he travels deeper into the interior?

2. Describe Salim's family.

3. What makes the trip longer and more complicated?

4. Why does Salim's family send the slave, Metty, to him?

5. Explain how the reader understands that Salim is inexperienced with women.

6. Describe Zabeth's son.

7. Describe the rumors about the new complex being built near the town.

8. Why does Ferdinand ask the question about African religion?

9. Describe the reunion of Salim and Indar.

10. Describe Zabeth's business.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Take the old saying, "It takes one to know one," and compare it to the meeting of Indar and Mahesh and his wife, Shoba. In Chapter 6, Metty recognizes a slave girl when she keeps coming to the store looking for him. Write an essay about how people can spot the faults in others that they have in themselves.

Essay Topic 2

Write a paper on the way Naipaul develops the character of Indar. Start with his early optimism about a European education. Discuss why you think he was never really successful. Explain how Naipaul creates Indar as a person who over values his own importance. Trace his arrival at the Domain with his chance meeting of the American and running into Raymond at the American millionaire's house.

Essay Topic 3

All through the novel there are changes in people as events unfold. Write an essay about how people and places change with the passing of time. Use either examples from the novel or personal examples of people you have known for a long time and places you have known and how they have changed after a long period of being apart.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 731 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample