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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 is the name of the girl whom the protagonist has his first sexual experience?

2. What does Bubbles' father do for a living?

3. What does the narrator say that the Monkey is, in his dad's terms?

4. What name had the narrator picked for himself out of the Essex County phone book?

5. Where was Kay from?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does Alex describe as the first of the shikses he had a relationship with? What attracted him to her?

2. What does the narrator say about the Monkey's life story in Chapter 4?

3. What does the narrator retell about the burlesque show in Chapter 4?

4. What does the narrator say about his resentment for his Jewishness and shikses in Chapter 4?

5. What does the narrator recall which might be "the root of his problems" in Chapter 4 regarding his mother?

6. What does Alex say he sometimes fantasizes about in Chapter 6?

7. What happened on the trip with the Monkey that began to change their relationship?

8. What does the memories of the Monkey conjure in Alex's memory in Chapter 4?

9. What story does Alex tell of the Monkey with the married couple?

10. Where did Alex go on a trip with Kay? What does Alex say about his experience with Kay's family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the role of bigotry and racism in Portnoy's Complaint. Which characters embody racist traits? How does the narrator relate these? How does this affect the narrator's career choice?

Essay Topic 2

What are the predominant metaphors in Portnoy's Complaint? How does the author "set up" these metaphors? How do these major metaphors recur in the text? Define "metaphor" in your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Roth's use of foreshadowing in Portnoy's Complaint. How does the atypical structure of the plot create a window for foreshadowing? Define this term and give examples of foreshadowing in the text.

(see the answer keys)

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