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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Blandmour believe God does for the poor?
(a) God gives the poor everything they need for free.
(b) God gives the poor very little help.
(c) God charges the rich to care for the poor.
(d) God gives the poor the challenges they need.

2. Of what does the onstage action in the London theater remind the narrator?
(a) The theater at home on Broadway.
(b) The church service he had watched from the bell tower.
(c) His own childhood.
(d) The curmudgeonly landlady at his boarding house.

3. What do the other employees think of Bartleby's refusals?
(a) They think Bartleby should be fired.
(b) They think Bartleby should be promoted.
(c) They think Bartleby should be forgiven.
(d) They think Bartleby should be excused.

4. How does the narrator describe life on the sea as compared to farming or working the Erie Canal?
(a) Sea life is "reckless and barbaric."
(b) Sea life is "daring and brave."
(c) Sea life is "calm and pure."
(d) Sea life is "quietly Christian."

5. What does the crew decide not to do after Steelkilt is flogged?
(a) Start a mutiny.
(b) Obey the captain.
(c) Desert together.
(d) Call out when whales were sighted.

Short Answer Questions

1. What two characteristics does Melville attribute to the islands of the Encantadas?

2. What office does the narrator of Bartleby hold that no longer exists?

3. With what alliteration does Melville describe the islands?

4. What did a strange boy give the narrator in the theater?

5. What was the message of the church meeting the narrator observed?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Nippers's shortcoming as a scrivener?

2. What do the sailors in "The Encantadas" do with tortoises?

3. Why does the narrator continue to accept Bartleby's refusals?

4. What stylistic devices does Melville use to give the reader the feeling of the rooster's crow in "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo"?

5. How does the poet Blandmour feel about poverty in "Poor Man's Pudding"?

6. Why does Melville come to believe that some buccaneers on the isle of Albermarle must have been gentlemen?

7. How does the narrator respond the first time Bartleby answers a request with, "I would prefer not to"?

8. What does the author of "Poor Man's Pudding" and "Rich Man's Crumbs" pray that Heaven will save him from?

9. Why does Melville call Redondo the "aviary of the ocean"?

10. How does the creditor in "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo" torment the narrator?

(see the answer keys)

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