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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 illness did Yukio contract when he was two years old?

2. Who helped Kiyoshi choose the necklace for his wife?

3. Who bought the café's Christmas tree?

4. When Yukio apologizes to his mother and asks for her forgiveness, what is he responding to?

5. When Kurata visits the café to clarify the time-travel rules, what question does he ask Kazu that she does not know the answer to?

Short Essay Questions

1. What larger point about life is the narrator of "Husband and Wife" making in the story's introductory comments about winter and spring?

2. What happened when Kimiko tried to intervene in the mugging incident?

3. What is Kurata wearing in the story's opening, and why does it make him seem out of place?

4. How did Yukio lose all of his money?

5. What are the conditions that Kurata gives Fumiko for either bringing or not bringing Asami to the café?

6. What lies does Yukio tell his mother about taking care of himself, and why does he tell these lies?

7. Immediately after losing all of his money, what is the only solution to his problems that Yukio can think of, and what prevents him from choosing this solution?

8. How does Yaeko Hirai's story inspire Kiyoshi to make a change in the way he has been living his life?

9. When Yukio is discouraged about his future, what keeps him working toward becoming a potter?

10. What kind gesture does Nagare make when he gives Kyoko her order, and how does Kyoko react?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Now that you are aware of how difficult it is to translate Japanese literature into English, consider which specific passages of Tales from the Café might have proven especially difficult for Trousselot to translate. For instance, when Kyoko is introduced on page 7, Trousselot writes, "Obviously caring little for formalities with strangers, she spoke to Gohtaro casually, as if he was a familiar face." Do you imagine that this sentence was necessary in the original, Japanese, text? How did Kawaguchi probably indicate this aspect of Kyoko's character? Even with this explicit explanation, does the English text really convey the impact that Kyoko's unexpected and unconventional language probably conveyed in the original? Also, consider the many subtle, elliptical conversations between Nagare and Kazu: what might be missing from the English translation that the original Japanese could easily convey? Write an essay that considers these and other aspects of translation in Tales from the Café. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 2

The motif of parental stand-ins begins in the story "Best Friends" with Gohtaro's adoption of his friend's orphaned child and with the parallel scenes between Miki and the younger version of Kazu. Later in the text, the reader learns about the relationship that developed between Kinuyo and Kazu after Kaname's death. What is Tales from the Café saying about stand-in and adoptive parents? Consider all three of these relationships--Gohtaro's with Haruka, Kazu's with Miki, and Kinuyo's with Kazu--as you write an essay analyzing the text's messages about parental relationships not through blood, but through choice. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

Essay Topic 3

In a text that focuses on the hopes and desires of different characters who come and go over the course of several separate stories, what is important about having Kazu's situation also reflect key thematic motifs? Which of the thematic motifs in Tales from the Café does Kazu's life story amplify? How does Kawaguchi encourage the reader to care about Kazu and whether she finds happiness? Write an essay that discusses the importance of Kazu as a consistent central figure in Tales from the Café and analyzes the techniques that Kawaguchi uses to make Kazu's happiness significant to the reader. Support your assertions with evidence drawn from throughout the text, and be sure to cite any quoted evidence in MLA format.

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