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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 was the impression of Japan by most of the Americans?

2. What was the period in Japan called during the era that Perry arrived?

3. What were the Dutch and formerly Christian Japanese forced to do?

4. What was Kayama pretending to be?

5. How is the place where the enormous ships appear described?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who were the daimyos?

2. Who were the samurai?

3. What was Edo's first response to the messengers and why is it amazing?

4. What was the Tokugawa period and some of its positive aspects?

5. What were some of Commodore Perry's accomplishments in addition to convincing the Japanese to receive him?

6. Describe the Dutch's visit to Edo to see the head Shogun.

7. Describe the scene as the ships steamed into the harbor.

8. Who commanded the American forces and why did they come to Japan?

9. What was the composition of the American forces arriving in Japan?

10. Why did the Dutch submit to the rigid restrictions of the Japanese?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Tokugawa period in Japan's history is often called The Great Peace, as there were few domestic revolts. Trade prospered and cities grew. Literacy rose, the arts flourished and the people were civilized and the government organized. However, the people had no freedom and lived under a social system of incredibly rigid rules. Discuss the following:

1. Is peace worth the cost, i.e., the repression of new ideas; rigid class system and strict social mores? This is what it took for The Great Peace during the Tokugawa period?

2. Could the peace that Japan experienced have been an illusion? Do you think the lower classes felt peaceful being oppressed?

3. Research a time when another country had a golden age of peace and compare/contrast it to the era of The Great Peace in Japan. How are they alike? How are they different? Did each country have to give up much in order to maintain internal peace?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following:

1. Define irony in literary terms. Discuss the irony of the situation of the fact that the Dutch had been treating with the Japanese for many years and lived like slaves; whereas, the Americans were given comparative royal treatment.

2. Define symbolism in literary terms. Discuss the use and meaning of five symbols you choose to analyze from Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun. What do they symbolize? Is the symbolism obvious? Effective? Does the symbolism contribute to the enjoyment of reading?

3. Discuss five literary devices that occur in Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogunand how they are used. Are they effective? Do they add or detract from the reading of the book? Why or why not. Some possible techniques: Allusion, connotation, denouement, dialogue, flashback, figurative language, motif, metaphor, narrator, point of view, simile, mood, and puns.

Essay Topic 3

In the world of academe, historical fiction is often considered an inferior form of the novel compared to "classic" literature. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think historical fiction might be considered second-rate compared to the classics, such as books by an author such as Charles Dickens?

2. Do you think historical fiction has the same elements as the classics? Why or why not?

3. What are the purposes do you think for people reading "the classics"? What are the purposes for people reading historical fiction? Is one purpose better than another? Explain your response.

4. Would you read historical fiction even outside an educational setting? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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