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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 would the Japanese officers give American ships?

2. What was handed to Commodore Perry?

3. What gifts did the Emperor never receive?

4. What did the Japanese do as the Americans passed by?

5. What is one thing the treaty called for?

Short Essay Questions

1. When was the Treaty House completed and what did Commodore Perry demand that they change?

2. How did the Americans impress the Japanese as the Americans came ashore?

3. What was the first approach the Japanese took towards the United States request for a treaty?

4. What horrified the Japanese about the Americans at the banquet, but how did the Japanese behave anyway?

5. What did Perry's arrival precipitate?

6. What was Hokkaido like and how did the first contact with them go for the Americans?

7. What sort of gifts did the Americans give the higher ranked Japanese?

8. How did the two cultures meet face to face and what did the people of the two countries think of the other?

9. How did the villagers of Shimoda behave at first?

10. How did the Japanese believe they had saved face, but did they really?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many authors if queried would admit that they have an agenda for writing a particular novel. Discuss the following:

1. Define and give examples of the concept of "author agenda."

2. Do you think Blumbeg has an agenda in mind when she writes Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun?

3. What do you think would be Blumberg's agenda(s) (if she has one)? Give examples to illustrate how the agenda is fulfilled.

4. Do you think writers who have an agenda for writing should point it out in a preface?

5. How often do you think fiction is written with a clear agenda in mind by the author?

Essay Topic 2

Most protagonists are a mixture of admirable traits and character flaws, and Commodore Perry is no exception.

1. Trace and analyze situations when Commodore Perry demonstrates his admirable traits. Give specific examples to illustrate your analysis.

2. Trace and analyze Commodore Perry's character flaws, and explain how the flaws help or hinder his obtaining his objectives.

3. After analyzing Commodore Perry's strengths and weaknesses, decide if he is an appropriate "hero" of the story. Is there anyone else who might be a more admirable "hero"?

Essay Topic 3

One major theme of Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun is that of the meeting of two dissimilar cultures and how the two cultures evolved to signing a treaty of mutual benefit. Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast some of the major cultural differences between the Americans and Japanese. Consider differences in the area of food, art, gender, and warfare.

2. The Japanese and the Americans each thought the other group barbaric. Discuss the term barbaric and analyze the ways in which each group applied the word to the other. Is either group accurate in naming the other barbaric? Discuss with examples.

3. Discuss the advantages of two cultures having a mutual exchange of ideas, trade and military support.

4. Discuss the disadvantages of two cultures having a mutual exchange of ideas, trade and military support.

(see the answer keys)

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