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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 Kelvin's mood following the experiment?

2. What does Snow do the first time Kelvin sees him after the experiment?

3. Why is Kelvin uncertain about participating in Sartorius' experiment?

4. What character trait does Kelvin say Rheya's suicide attempt shows?

5. What is the common perception of Solaris during the first period of Solarist study that Gravinsky identifies?

Short Essay Questions

1. What book does Kelvin read in the library?

2. What can't Kelvin find, when he wakes in the morning?

3. What is Gravinsk's Compendium commonly used for?

4. Why does Rheya lie to Kelvin about what she did during the night?

5. What reason does Kelvin give for wanting to go off the station?

6. Does Snow believe Kelvin when Kelvin says he loves Rheya?

7. Why doesn't Kelvin want to open a communications channel to the shuttle he launched?

8. What does Rheya want from Kelvin, after she listens to the tape recorder?

9. Describe the ocean as Kelvin sees it, after leaving the research station for the first time.

10. What does Snow say that Sartorius wants to do to the ocean?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate Rheya's individuality and separateness from Kelvin.

1) Why can't Rheya leave Kelvin's sight when she first appears, and why does she grow more physically independent the longer she exists?

2) Does Rheya merely reflect Kelvin's deepest memories, thoughts, and beliefs, or is she separate from him?

3) Does Rheya become an individual over the course of the story, or is she trapped into being a reflection of Kelvin's thoughts and memories?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the conflict in the novel Solaris.

1) To what extent is Solaris an antagonist in the novel? In conflicting with Solaris, do the characters struggle against another "person" or against nature, or both?

2) Rheya is a reflection of Kelvin's unconscious mind. To what extent is Kelvin's conflict with himself, as opposed to with an outer force or being?

Essay Topic 3

Solaris is written in the first person point of view, from Kelvin's perspective. Discuss point of view in Solaris.

1) Kelvin enters the Solaris research in the middle of the action, when Gibarian is already dead. Why does the author choose to begin with Kelvin's arrival into an already ongoing situation?

2) The first person point of view restricts the reader's knowledge to Kelvin's thoughts and perception. Why does the author choose this point of view?

3) Why does the author focus on Kelvin as a character and Kelvin's interaction with his visitor, to the exclusion of the other visitors?

(see the answer keys)

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