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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 old is the girl whom the main character has his first sexual experience?

2. What irritates the narrator about the way the Monkey reads?

3. What is one of the books the narrator buys for the Monkey?

4. Who does the narrator recite a poem by to the Monkey?

5. What is the name of the girl whom the narrator watches doing figure eights on the ice rink?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Alex remark about Israel?

2. What attracts Alex to Naomi? How does he express his feelings for her?

3. What, according to the narrator, are the worst sins he has committed in Chapter 4?

4. What does Alex say about the photo of Jesus in Bubbles's house?

5. Why did Alex and Kay almost marry? What caused him to end the relationship?

6. How does Alex describe the "Sunday morning ritual" in his neighborhood?

7. How does the narrator's first sexual experience occur with Bubbles?

8. What happened with Mandel and Bubbles? What does this prompt the narrator to need to know?

9. When do the narrator's doubts about the Monkey reach a climax?

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 theme of religion in Portnoy's Complaint. How does the narrator express his issues with Judaism? What are his feelings toward Christianity? How does religion tie into the other themes in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the phrase "Living a Jewish Joke." How does this resonate as an important element of Portnoy's Complaint? How does the ending of the novel revisit this line?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the Oedipus Complex as it applies to the main character of Portnoy's Complaint. What emotions and experiences support this theme?

(see the answer keys)

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