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. What does Clamence say is the goal of living?

2. Who does the dog go to instead?

3. What door does Clamence ask the auditor to open?

4. What are Clamence and the auditor traveling on in this chapter?

5. What disallows Frenchmen from walking hand in hand?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Clamence's role as pope?

2. Describe Clamence's hallucination aboard the boat in chapter 5?

3. What is Clamence's reason for stealing a dying man's water?

4. How does Clamence make himself feel happy?

5. Why does Clamence call attention to the quaintness of Amsterdam?

6. What is a little ease?

7. What does Clamence say is the goal of living?

8. Why must the doves remain high in the atmosphere?

9. Summarize Clamence's argument?

10. What does the little ease signify?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is Clamence referring to when he states without the strict dynamic of master and servant, any argument could stretch into affinity? Can the view be attribute to today's society or is such a view specific to the 1950s? Why would any argument stretch into affinity?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the construction of Clamence's argument.

1) How does he introduce his ideas?

2) How does he deconstruct his ideas into a logical conclusion?

3) Are the ideas that Camus presents in his book, ideas that relate only the way Clamence lived his life or is the argument a critique of society in general?

Essay Topic 3

Look at the structure of the novel.

1) Discuss elements of the narrative structure; Exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the novel's themes?

2) Away from the narrator examine the way Camus uses the other characters in the story. In what way do they help Clamence get his view across to the reader?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 731 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample