View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Kimiâ reports often relegating her instructions to a waiter or salesperson to how many words during her time living in Paris?

2. With what phrase does Kimiâ find fault in regard to members of the diaspora?

3. From a young age, Kimiâ had been sure that she would grow up to be a what?

4. The novel's prologue focuses on whose aversion to the use of escalators?

5. Kimiâ states of the present time that all the reader needs "to know is that it's" (13) the 19th of what month?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Kimiâ, how did her successful transition to living by the cultural codes of France change her personality?

2. What is Kimiâ's understanding of the source of her social anxiety?

3. Provide an example from the text when Djavadi's use of the confessional tone interacts with the idea of storytelling.

4. Discuss an incident during Kimiâ's childhood that teaches her to distrust male authority figures.

5. How is the theme of loss intertwined with the theme of transformation within Chapter 3?

6. Provide an example of a social situation in which Kimiâ feels anxiety.

7. How does Kimiâ portray "the Iranian woman's lot" in Side A: Chapter 4?

8. What does the escalator symbolize within the prologue of Disoriental?

9. What sort of evidence does Kimiâ provide in order to back up her claim that the phrase "effort to integrate" lacks both "sincerity and openness" (111)?

10. To what natural human process does Kimiâ compare exile and why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Djavadi’s messages about guilt and responsibility within Disoriental.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze the ways in which the themes of adaptability and resignation appear within Djavadi’s novel Disoriental. What message is Djavadi sending about these two themes over the course of the narrative?

Essay Topic 3

Write a critical essay about Disoriental while using the critical power theory lens of feminist theory. Use textual evidence to back up your strong, specific claim regarding the novel's treatment of gender roles, the objectification of women, female empowerment, misogyny's role within society, or any other issues related to feminist theory that can be found in the novel.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,415 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample