View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who answers the phone when Oedipa tries to call Driblette from her motel room in Chapter 6?
(a) Driblette's mother.
(b) A graduate student.
(c) Grace Bortz.
(d) His girlfriend.

2. What is the name of the religious splinter group Bortz attributes to changing the pornographic version of the play?
(a) Schumites.
(b) Purtians.
(c) Scurvhamites.
(d) Thurn and Taxis.

3. What does the Nefastis Machine do?
(a) Create Nuclear warheads.
(b) Create thermodynamics.
(c) Sort postal symbols.
(d) Sort hot and cold molecules.

4. Oedipa goes to the stamp auction to somehow confront the mysterious bidder for lot 49 and she encounters who?
(a) Metzger.
(b) John Nefastis.
(c) Mucho Maas.
(d) Genghis Cohen.

5. Oedipa reads about Blobb's account of an attack near the Lake of Piety, which left all dead except Blobb and his servant. Who attacked them?
(a) Vatican brigands.
(b) Scurvhamites.
(c) Roman soldiers.
(d) Trystero brigands.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Mucho offer to Oedipa before they leave the pizzeria?

2. Bortz imagines one visionary militant addressing a group of Tristero members in a tavern to propose a merger with official postal couriers. What name does he give to this visionary?

3. The pattern of information Oedipa sees forming in Chapter 4 has to do with what?

4. What does the owner of the government surplus store, Winthrop Tremaine, tell Oedipa there is a large demand for?

5. What happens to Oedipa after she knocks on the door of Dr. Hilarius's office in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Oedipa and Metzger go back to The Scope in Chapter 4, Mike Fallopian explains that there exists what kind of underground group?

2. What is meant by Oedipa seeing Genghis Cohen, the philatelist, framed in a long succession of doorways?

3. When Oedipa visits Vesperhaven House, what does Mr. Thoth tell her about his dream?

4. Describe the Nefastis Machine as it was explained by Stanley Koteks.

5. The overall crisis Oedipa faces by the end of the novel could be summed up how?

6. Give examples of individuals with the post horn symbol who are somehow alienated from society.

7. What is the paradox that Oedipa discovers concerning the Trystero couplet from Driblette's play?

8. Why does Nefastis contend that only a sensitive person can work his machine?

9. Oedipa discovers that the line from Driblette's version in Plays of Ford, Webster, Tourneur and Wharfinger about Trystero was replaced by another referring to what?

10. Why does Oedipa think it is possible that her search for Tristero may be a hoax created by Pierce Inverarity?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,072 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample