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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 color is Van's terrycloth robe?

2. What was Van's first novel called?

3. How does Ada introduce her husband to Van?

4. What example does Van use in discussing order or succession in our perception of the past?

5. Where does Van keep Ada's communications for fifty years?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Van's opinion of acting?

2. What does Van do after leaving Demon?

3. What does Van plan to do in the duel?

4. What were the reviews of Van's first book like?

5. How does Demon discover that Van is living with Ada?

6. What exercise in memory does Van attempt, which he also gives to his patients?

7. What plan does Lucette propose to Van?

8. How does Van characterize to Greg his relationship with Ada?

9. Why does Van think he is sterile?

10. How did Percy de Prey die?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the mental and physical worlds in the novel.

1) How does the mental world of Van's intellectual investigations and books relate to the physical world around him?

2) How does Van's mental relationship with Ada relate to their physical relationship?

3) How does the balance of mind and body, mental and physical change over time, as Van ages?

Essay Topic 2

The novel is filled with reflections of reality through art, such as films and photographs. Discuss these elements of the novel.

1) How do reflections of reality in the novel, like photographs or films, differ from reality itself? How do they create reality through memory?

2) What significance is there to Marina and later Ada's careers as actresses? How does the mimicking of reality in acting affect the characters?

3) How does the governess's screenplay reflect reality at Ardis Hall? How is it modified and changed in the process of production? What does this process of change show about imitations of reality?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the relationships between parents and children in the novel.

1) How does Van relate to Aqua? How does he relate to Demon? How does he relate to Marina? What does he get from each of these parental figures, and how do they affect him?

2) How does Marina relate to Ada and Lucette? How does she influence them? Compare her influence to the influence of the governess.

3) What influence does Dan have as a parent? How do Lucette and Ada relate to him?

(see the answer keys)

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