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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 does the narrator say is his first impression of Ishmael?

2. What does Ishmael say the narrator will be the result of learning what he is teaching?

3. What does the narrator say was removed when man learned to farm?

4. What does Ishmael say is the premise of the narrator’s creation myth?

5. When does the narrator’s creation story begin?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ishmael say that their discussion is like sightseeing?

2. Why is the narrator so upset to see Ishmael’s ad in the paper?

3. Why does Walter Sokolow adopt Ishmael?

4. What does Ishmael say man’s purpose is, in the narrator’s creation myth?

5. How does Ishmael characterize the earth before the development of human culture?

6. What are the definitions Ishmael lays out for the narrator?

7. Why does Ishmael provide the narrator with a tape recorder?

8. What does Ishmael say will be the result, once the narrator learns to hear Mother Culture’s voice?

9. How does the narrator characterize the problems with the narrator’s culture?

10. What is the ‘but’ Ishmael says is part of the narrator’s culture’s myth, and where does the ‘but’ come from?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Assess the proposition that Ishmael is a kunstlerroman, or the coming of age of an artist story, whose protagonist is the narrator. Is this a fair proposition? Why or why not? What changes does the narrator go through that might make this a coming of age story for his artistic persona?

Essay Topic 2

Is Ishmael an attack on Judaic-Christian culture, a call for reform, or something else? Use examples from the text, in addition to your knowledge of Judaic and Christian culture.

Essay Topic 3

What is the outcome of the dialogue between Ishmael and the narrator? What influence has the book had on American or western culture? What influence does it have in your reading? How might this book change the story you are enacting?

(see the answer keys)

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