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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. How does Julius say his mother saw her mother, Julius’ oma?

2. What is the main impression Julius gives of the dream he has at the beginning of Chapter 10?

3. What is the second of Farouq’s two projects?

4. What does Julius think about doing in the boat basin behind the World Financial Center?

5. How does Julius say he sees the other people who are around when he is in the atrium above the Wall Street subway station?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the style of the opening pages of Open City, and what kind of expectation do they set up in the reader?

2. What is the scene Julius remembers from Dr. Gupta’s house, while he is watching The Last King of Scotland?

3. What does Julius say his relationship with his mother is like?

4. What is it about Coca-Cola that the younger Julius found so appealing?

5. How does the incident in which Musibau accused Julius of stealing his paper ultimately work in Julius’ favor?

6. What are Julius’ thoughts on the weather and global warming?

7. What is Julius’ relationship with his oma like?

8. How does Julius say he ended up at the Nigerian Military School, when his father was not a soldier?

9. At the book's beginning, why does the narrator says that he goes for long walks?

10. What stereotype does Dr. Maillotte, the woman who sits next to Julius on the plane to Brussels, hold about Nigerians, and how does Julius respond to her cast-typing?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What can we tell about him, based on the choices he makes in terms of description, characterization and plot? What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch with passages in the book.

Essay Topic 2

How does Teju Cole’s novel resolve the tension between the idea that difference should be assimilated and the idea that cultural differences should be preserved and protected from assimilation? How does the novel address and resolve this question? How does Julius himself experience the tension between these positions? How does he himself resolve this tension?

Essay Topic 3

How are women represented in Open City? What roles do they play, and how does Julius and other men in the novel treat them? What does Julius’ and others’ treatment of women tell us about Teju Cole’s values as an author or about the fictional universe he has created?

(see the answer keys)

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