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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. By standards of the East, as compared to the West, how is anyone with talent treated?

2. What phrase occurs often throughout Chapter 2?

3. Citizens of communist countries become adept in what skill, according to Milosz?

4. Milosz asserts that the man of the New Faith has the greatest fear of what action?

5. Milosz says that an individual has no more significance to the muse of history than what object?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the Nazis invaded Warsaw, every man quickly changed his view of the world. Rather than reporting a corpse lying in the gutter, he passes quietly on. What does this say about man's state of mind then?

2. How does Alpha's hunger for purity and strong heroic characters prepare the way for the New Faith? Could he have gone any other way?

3. As the new way comes into power, it cannot eradicate the old way all at once. Why not?

4. What is communism's goal for the relationship between the present and the past?

5. Why does the man entering the gate of communism feel that he is doing something wrong?

6. .How did Alpha become a more religious writer when he turned away from Christianity?

7. How does Ketman create pride in the man who practices it?

8. The East uses talented artists to their full ability, yet sometimes with mediocre results. Why does this happen?

9. From several references to Tito throughout Chapters 2 and 3, what can the reader infer about him? What does the center gain by making an example of him?

10. How does national Ketman satisfy, as much as possible, the nationalist leanings in a man? Why is this an important Ketman?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Beta's stories portray man as an animal, barely held in check by the restraints of civilization. How is this demonstrated in Poland during World War II? Given the progression of Poland through capitalism, Nazism, and communism, was man's good or animal side stronger? Which one triumphed? Also, use examples from the book of people acting out of goodness.

Essay Topic 2

The West, in not taking advantage of every artist, wastes a huge amount of talent. Is the East's method better or worse? Is there an ideal system in which exceptional artists are appreciated without conforming to a particular method?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the book, the converts to communism decry the evils of capitalism, even going so far as to say capitalism led directly to Hitlerism (pg. 128, Beta's assertion). Is this necessarily true? If communism leads, as history has proven, to a dictatorship, then where does capitalism lead?

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