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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 does Helene ask Joncour to promise before he leaves for his fourth trip to Japan?

2. What is the Englishman, who sits next to Helene at the event, wearing in his lapel?

3. When Helene and Joncour see Baldabiou off at the train station, what does Helene do?

4. When the boy appears in the village of Hara Kei on the fourth trip, what does he give to Joncour?

5. When Joncour asks about Hara Kei the morning after the party, what is he told?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the changes in the world described in Chapter 54 change Joncour's world? How did these changes affect the silk trade? Explain.

2. When Joncour's wife asks about the aviary, what does he say to her? What do you think she is thinking about her husband's actions? Do you think she is aware that something is going on?

3. On the fourth trip to Japan, what does the young boy offer Joncour to get him to follow him? Who is this boy? Who sent him? Why is he in the village alone?

4. Why does Joncour sit by the lake on windy days after the death of his wife? Has the meaning of the ripples on the water changed for him?

5. Why does Joncour fire his gun on the way out of town and startle the birds? What is he saying, and to whom? Who will get his message?

6. Why does Helene pretend not to notice the letters when they are clearly in plain sight?

7. On the fourth trip to Japan, describe the young boy that Joncour follows? What is he playing? Why would he play music as they wander through the villages?

8. On his fourth trip to Japan, what does Joncour find when he arrives at Hara Kei's village? How does he see the village? What is the state of the village a symbol of?

9. On his final trip to Madame Blanche's, what does she tell Joncour about his wife that he did not know?

10. What does Joncour mean when he says to the Englishman, "We are all marvelous, and we are all revolting"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do the two English characters, the one in France at the party, and the one in the Japanese village, have in common? How are they different? Why do you think the author introduced these two characters, one in each country, to play off the main characters? What do they bring to the story? How would the story have been different without them?

Essay Topic 2

Describe the significance of silk and when and where it is used in the story to identify or describe a character. Think about the colorful litter, the silk tunic given to Helene by her husband and the silk kimono worn by Madame Blanche.

Essay Topic 3

Japan is described twice in the novel as "the end of the world." Who describes it that way, and when? Are the two incidents connected in any way?

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