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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 is it called when Vasili dies protecting Nikita?

2. What causes Father Sergius to leave the monastery?

3. Who is Stepan Kasatsky?

4. How does Pozdnyshev view his children?

5. Who was Countess Korotkova?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the event that precipitates Pozdnyshev's murder of his wife?

2. How does Stepan acquire the name Father Sergius?

3. Describe Pozdnyshev's relation with his children.

4. What does Hadji Murad hope to find when he reaches Russia?

5. Why does Murad want to fight Shamil?

6. What did the Tsar decide with regard to Murad?

7. What does Pozdnyshev realize as soon as he kills his wife?

8. What does Murad ask Prince Vorontsov for after he surrenders?

9. What gift did Father Sergius discover he had, and what did it do for him?

10. Why did Hadji Murad set out for Russia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the state of civilization in the Russia of these stories? Are they modern, agricultural, primitive? What kinds of conflicts are taking place over the state of culture or progress? How do those conflicts reveal 'Russian culture'?

Essay Topic 2

How does Tolstoy treat the relationship between Russians and others--Chechen, Tartars, Cossacks, Turks? What make Russians Russian? What distinguishes them from the others, and what is the basis for hostility when there his hostility? What stance does Tolstoy take in presenting these relationships? (Sympathetic, critical, nationalistic?)

Essay Topic 3

Many characters in Tolstoy's stories learn and grow throughout the stories. Analyzing three stories, describe the and compare the kinds of growth Tolstoy portrays: are there commonalities? Is growth always in the direction of moral and spiritual enlightenment? If not, what other kinds of growth does Tolstoy describe?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 633 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample