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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 Kundera, what is "the first precondition of freedom" (Part III, Chapter 18, pg 121)?
2. What does Xavier find most compelling about the woman in the house?
3. What does Jaromil think is the quintessential surrealist object?
4. Why does Maman want to return to her relationship with the artist?
5. The second time that Jaromil does not make love to the university girl, what does she think?
Short Essay Questions
1. When Jaromil returns at midnight after walking the university girl home, Maman becomes hysterical because she was worried about him. What does this scene show about these two people's perception of love?
2. When Jaromil is unable to make love to the university girl a second time, he pretends that there is another woman in his life. To what extent is this true?
3. How does Kundera describe Jaromil's nursing? How does this set the tone for the future relationship between mother and son?
4. How are Jaromil's university experiences told in the novel? What message does this convey to the reader about the scope of the novel?
5. Consider titles of the novel, sections, and chapters. How do the titles help to establish the frame of the story?
6. In Xavier's interactions with the woman in the apartment, what role does water play?
7. What role do the twenty telephone receivers play in the story?
8. Why does Xavier leave the woman behind at the end of Part 2?
9. While Jaromil is still a child, how does Maman prepare him for success as a writer? How does her preparation, paradoxically, also prepare him for failure?
10. What role does Jaromil want the artist to play in his life? How does the artist fall short of these expectations?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Kundera admits that the novel has the same limitations as reality (Part 6, Chapter 1, pg 269). What does this mean? How does this play out in the lives of the characters? What is the effect of speaking so candidly to the reader?
Essay Topic 2
What implications are there in Xavier's dance with the older woman? Are details of her age seen as something beautiful? How does this dance show Xavier's triumph over a girl his own age? What about over his own age? How is his love for the blond girl incomplete without his demonstration of love for the old woman?
Essay Topic 3
How do the colors of people's clothing give clues about their place in Jaromil's life? What about the colors of clothing in Xavier's life? How are the colors similar or different between the two lives?
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This section contains 1,917 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) |
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