View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who, according to the narrator, cannot be a dreamer?
(a) The poor.
(b) The common man.
(c) The intellectual man.
(d) The wealthy.

2. What characteristic does the narrator hope his wife will have?
(a) Depression.
(b) Happiness.
(c) Sterility.
(d) Fertility.

3. What does the narrator call the act of writing when he begins to view it as unappealing?
(a) Stoic.
(b) Common.
(c) Tedium.
(d) Unoriginal.

4. What kinds of things tend to hurt the narrator easily, according to him?
(a) Comments made by the office boy.
(b) Small things.
(c) Criticism from his boss.
(d) Nothing.

5. What is a semiheteronym?
(a) The opposit of a pseudonym.
(b) A persona that isn't too far away from the writer's personality.
(c) The opposite of a semiantonym.
(d) A term that refers to the writer who questions his/her own sexuality.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old is the author of The Book of Disquiet when he dies?

2. When does the narrator begin to think of writing as unappealing?

3. Why does the narrator say he believes animals are not happy?

4. What does tedium seem to attack, according to the narrator?

5. What does the author meditate on regarding the people who disappear from his life?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are women considered to be nothing more than decor by the narrator?

2. Discuss the office boy's travels and the narrator's view of them.

3. According to the narrator, how does one become a man of action? What role do men of action play in society and why?

4. What does the narrator say about intelligent and sensitive people? Since they can't be banned to an island, what should they do and why?

5. Of the five senses, which does the narrator say is the most important?

6. What are the narrator's thoughts on writing perfect literature? Which classic example does he analyze to make his point and what does he say about it?

7. Why does the narrator dislike reading the newspaper?

8. According to the narrator, what is the only true form of pleasure that exists? Explain his reasoning.

9. What is the gift of the common folk, according to the narrator?

10. Discuss the narrator's initial feelings in a barber shop and why they changed.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 824 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample