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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 do Solomon and Hana begin doing after school in Book Three, Chapter 14?

2. What does Hana ask Solomon about when she calls him in Book Three, Chapter 15?

3. From Book Three, Chapter 16, what question from Japanese people causes Phoebe to overreact?

4. In Book Three, Chapter 17, what does Kazu do for Solomon?

5. What does Senora Wakamura say on Other Lands in Book Three, Chapter 12?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Noa go to Nagano in Book Three, Chapter 1 after he finds Hansu is his father?

2. Why does Mozasu not want Solomon to take over the family business in Book Three, Chapter 21?

3. Why does Solomon get fired from his job in Book Three, Chapter 19?

4. What case does Haruki go to investigate in Book Three, Chapter 7? What does Haruki learn when he meets the boy’s parents?

5. What does Solomon want to do for his and Hana's relationship in Book Three, Chapter 14?

6. Why does Phoebe find it difficult to live in Japan as described in Book Three, Chapter 16?

7. What does Noa's letter to Sunja and the Baek family say Book Two, Chapter Twenty after he learns Hansu is his father?

8. Why does Sunja go to Koh Hansu with Noa in Book Two, Chapter 13 What does Koh Hansu say?

9. What leads Haruki to become a police officer as described in Book Two, Chapter 17? Who recommends him to join?

10. What causes Etsuko's divorce as described in Book Three, Chapter 9? How has this affected her relationship with her children?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the end of the novel, David Copperfield is brought up as Noa's favorite novel. Why does he like this particular book? Choose another example of intertexuality in the book (such as the Bible, the book of "Hosea, "Daniel Deronda," the epigraphs at the beginning of each book). How do these stories map out and connect to the story in the novel? Do some background research and pull excerpts from the intertextual sources to support its connection to Pachinko. How does having multiple examples of intertextuality expand different sections of the text?

Essay Topic 2

On Yangjin's deathbed, the following passage takes place:

"Go-saeng, Yangjin said out loud, "A woman's lot is to suffer."

"Yes, go-saeng," Kyunghee nodded, repeating the word for suffering.

All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from the other women, that they must suffer---suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother--die suffering. Go-saeng---the word made her sick. What else was there besides this. She had suffered to create a better life for Noa, and yet it was not enough. Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she'd drunk like water? In the end, he had refused to suffer the conditions of his birth. Did mother's fail by not telling their sons that suffering would come?" (420).

How in this passage and elsewhere is suffering different for women than it is from men? How are men allowed to live differently than women? And when Sunja thinks about teaching Noa to deal with suffering as she has, how is the way she has learned to handle the world different than the way he has learned? Analyze this passage, and then use two other examples in the text to support a claim.

Essay Topic 3

In the beginning of Pachinko, Hoonie's parents raise him according to the ideal that, "a spoiled son did more harm to the family than a dead one" (6). Later, we see characters such as Sunja and Hansu thinking and speaking about how their parents treated them. We see Noa commit suicide based on his parentage. How does the way different parents raise their children affect the way these children represent their families and carry out their lives? How do they raise their children as a result? Use at least two characters to develop an argument. Finally, does what Hoonie's parents use for raising their son hold true for the rest of the novel?

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