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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. According to Ossip in Chapter 29, when did La Maga leave her flat and likely Paris?

2. What is the topic of the letter in the Observer in Chapter 146?

3. What term does Horacio use to refer to his destined home is Chapter 36?

4. What is the name of the international organization that Ceferino Piriz wants to create?

5. What does Pola wonder as she and Horacio make love in Chapter 101?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is revealed in the tape recording of Chapter 47?

2. Describe Horacio's dream in Chapter 100.

3. How is Traveler affected by Horacio in this section?

4. What is Horacio's state of mind in this section?

5. What cold comfort does Horacio offer La Maga in Chapter 108?

6. Why are Etienne and Horacio shocked when they get to the old writers room in Chapter in 154?

7. Professionally, what changes for Traveler, Horacio and Talita in this section?

8. What legal formality takes place in Chapter 51?

9. How do Traveler and Horacio put Talita in a ridiculous position in Chapter 41?

10. Describe the argument that Ossip and Horacio have in this section.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The novel HOPSCOTCH owes as much to the modernist movement of the the early twentieth century as the era in which it was written and is set. The most pointed of these debts is its use of stream-of-consciousness logic. Write an essay on the free associative qualities both of the ruminations of characters and the structure of the novel as a whole. Which characters engage in stream-of-conscious diatribes,a nd what fuels these? Moreover, to what extent do the expendable chapters often serve as free association, linking to some aspect of a narrative scene and going off on a digression?

Essay Topic 2

The motif of madness permeates the second book of HOPSCOTCH to the point that by the end even the reader is unsure what is real and what is not. Write an essay on the topic of madness, focusing on the character of Horacio. What begins his spiral away from sanity? How does encroaching madness manifest itself at first, and how does it accelerate when he begins to work at the mental hospital? In the end, how is Horacio unable to process reality?

Essay Topic 3

Horacio Oliveira is a callous, self-involved, deeply-jealous individual. He is, however, the novel's protagonist, and Cortazar reveals both his flaws and virtues through a series of foils. Write an essay about three of these foils. How does Horacio know each of them? What is the nature of the conflict that exists between him and each foil? What does this conflict reveal about both Horacio and the foil?

Part 1) La Maga

Part 2) Ossip Gregorovius

Part 3) Manolo Traveler

(see the answer keys)

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