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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 did Akira do as a military student?

2. In Crybaby, how did Kurosawa's older brother try to toughen him up in preparation face bullies?

3. What relation was Togashi to Akira?

4. Whose help did Akira Kurosawa eventually employ to convince his father to let him quit calligraphy lessons?

5. When the Depression hits Japan, what did Akira felt bad about his parents paying for what?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was Kurosawa nearly killed on the way to school in this section?

2. Years later, what does Kurosawa think about his brother's insistence that they explore the carnage?

3. How was Kuosawa's new art teacher different from Mr. Tachikawa?

4. How was young Akira humbled in The Goblin's Nose?

5. What was Forgotten Children, and how did it affect Kurosawa?

6. How did Kurosawa's brother toughen him up as a child?

7. Describe the memory of the dog in Babyhood?

8. In Whirlwind, what sort of decline did Akira's older brother have?

9. What happened on September 1, 1923?

10. What is Akira Kurosawa's earliest memory?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Throughout the events of SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, Akira Kurosawa is clearly a city boy. From time to time, he goes to the country, and the experience is always one of growth for him. Wirte an essay about these trips and how they help him grow into an adult. How does Kurosawa's first experience with sake at his father's childhood home turn out? Why does his father later send him to Toyokaya Village? What role does the country play in the films of Akira's early career?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the relationship Akira has with his older brother. When the author is young and considered a crybaby, what pointed differences exist between him and his brother? How does his brother toughen him up at this age, and what other tactics does his brother use to make him tougher over the years that follow? how does the relationship develop in the years leading to Akira's brother's suicide? What similarities between them become clear only after the brother's death?

Essay Topic 3

Taken together, the events of SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY create the arc of one boys maturing into adulthood. Throughout, Kurosawa state his personal opinion of how a child should be raised. Write an essay delineating his philosophy. Which adults form his childhood define good education for him? Which ones represent the bad educators? What is the difference between good and bad adults to him? What does this mean regarding Kurosawa's philosophy of child rearing?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,116 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample