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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 part does Ada play in the film "The Young and the Doomed"?

2. What kind of fish does Lucette have when she and Van go to lunch?

3. Who is Mr. Gromwell?

4. What does Van invite Lucette to do?

5. What does Ada think of Van's change in weight?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Van write about in his unsent letter to Ada?

2. What does Van propose about the future in his treatise on time?

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

4. Why does Van need to go back for more surgery?

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

6. How does Van remember his three farewell lectures on Bergson's Time?

7. How does Van respond to an invitation to dine at the Captain's table?

8. What does Van say is as common in dreams as metaphors are in poetry?

9. What plan does Lucette propose to Van?

10. When Ada telephones Van, what does she tell him?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Van and Ada part bitterly after 1888 because of jealousy, and jealousy plays an important role in their relationship. Discuss jealousy in the novel.

1) Why is Van so jealous of Ada's other sexual relationships, when he is also sexually active without her? How is Ada jealous of Van?

2) How is Lucette jealous of Ada? How does her jealousy affect and define her relationships with Van and with Ada?

3) What other jealousies exist in the novel? How do the different characters respond to and think of jealousy?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the structure of the novel.

1) What role does each of the five parts of the novel play? How does each represent a specific period in the relationship of Ada and Van, and how are those periods different from each other?

2) Why is the first book the longest? Why is the fourth book a single chapter?

3) In what ways is the structure chronological? How and why does it break out of chronological order?

Essay Topic 3

As Van's memoir, the novel deals with memory. It also deals with memory through Van's discussion of time and its meaning. Discuss time and memory in the novel.

1) How is the story of Van and Ada's childhood changed by memory? What significance is there to the fact that the children's diaries were destroyed, forcing them to recreate the events from memory?

2) What role does memory plan in Van and Ada's feelings about each other why they are separated?

3) How does time affect the characters? How does Van's discussion of time relate to the characters' experiences?

(see the answer keys)

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