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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 Marketa not know about Eva and Karel?

2. Where does Mirek arrive?

3. What is Zdena's response?

4. What is the tone of the play RHINOCEROS?

5. Why is Kundera asked to leave the ring?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is upsetting about Mama's visit and why doesn't Marketa do anything about it?

2. What is the difference between how Mama views memory versus how Karel and Marketa do?

3. How does Marketa meet Eva and how does the relationship evolve to include Karel?

4. Why do you think Marketa asks Eva to pretend she is Marketa's cousin?

5. What is Zdena response to Mirek's request for his letters and do you think she is being fair to Mirek?

6. How does Marketa's feelings towards her mother-in-law change over time?

7. Where does Mirek stop and why is that problematic?

8. What does this Kundera say about our collective past?

9. What is the meaning of laughter in part 3?

10. What situation in Kundera's personal past does he discuss after writing about laughter?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The final chapter, "Borders," seems to suggest the idea of borders through repetition. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think this chapter is titled "Borders"?

2. Does the concept of borders appear in each chapter? Explain with examples.

3. Do you think there is a reason Kundera titles the last chapter "Borders" as opposed to any other chapter in the book? Explain fully.

4. How is the concept of borders related to that of repetition? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

In Part 1, the concept of lost letters and their connection to a person's past is an important theme to the novel, as well as a strong foreshadowing of what is to transpire between Tamina and other characters in the novel. Choose one of the following to discuss:

1. Discuss the way the letters represent a power struggle between Mirek and Zdena and what one of them loses who lose the power struggle.

2. Discuss how the letters Mirek seeks from Zdena are unimportant compared to the letters the police find at his house. What are the implications about Mirek and the choices he makes concerning the letters? Is Mirek irresponsible?

3. Discuss how the trip for Mirek to recover his letters from Zdena is a reflection of the larger pursuit that the main character Tamina will undertake in future chapters.

Essay Topic 3

This "novel" is more a text of ideas than action. Discuss one of the following ideas:

1. In part 6: "The Angels," Kundera writes that Hubl remarks that you can "liquidate its people" by erasing their memory of their previous culture. Discuss this idea in context of the book.

2. In part 6: "The Angels," Kundera blurs the historical moments of Clementis and Gottwald, Kafta and the President heretofore referred to as the Presdient of Forgetting, Svoboda. Discuss this blurring of historical moments in context of the book.

3. Discuss the idea that despite hundreds of thousands of lives being influenced and changed, the history of the world is easily forgotten. (From Part 1: "Lost Letters")

(see the answer keys)

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