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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 happens as Maman sees her son's physicality?
2. Why is 1949 an interesting year for Czech youth?
3. What is Xavier's first impression of the woman in the house?
4. What night does Magda take her bath?
5. What is the highest point of happiness which Jaromil reaches so far in his life?
Short Essay Questions
1. What does the artist want most of all for Maman? Why is this difficult for her?
2. What role do the twenty telephone receivers play in the story?
3. Why is Jaromil attracted to the dark-haired girl? What does this attraction show about his development as a character?
4. In Xavier's interactions with the woman in the apartment, what role does water play?
5. As Jaromil reaches adolescence, why is manhood so important to him?
6. When the Communists stage a coup, Jaromil and his uncle fight about the justice of the action. What does this fight reveal about Jaromil's place in the world, particularly in the political realm?
7. "He [Jaromil] was searching for immensity. His life was hopeless, small, everything around him was flat, gray" (Part 3, Chapter 8, pg 104). How does Kundera's presentation of the novel prove this to be true?
8. "For real life is elsewhere. The students are pulling up cobblestones, overturning cars, making barricades; their entrance into the world is noise and magnificent, illuminated by flames and glorified by explosions of tear gar grenades" (Part 4, pg 175). What does this mean in the context of Jaromil's life?
9. Given the first three paragraphs of Part 2, what leads the reader to believe that this character is Jaromil? What clues tell the reader that it is someone else?
10. What is the point of the scene in which Xavier leads his military compatriots to battle? Why does he not get his wish for death?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Find examples of older people in love with younger. How does this fit the Freudian theme of Jaromil with his mother? What is the significance in the fact that Xavier cannot undress the old woman?
Essay Topic 2
Is Jaromil's jealousy of the redhead's body acceptable? How is he acting toward her in the same way that Maman acts toward him?
Essay Topic 3
What element causes Jaromil's death? How is this suited to his life? What does it mean that at the end he looked into his own face, and what horror is added in that moment?
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This section contains 1,676 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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