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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 does the chairman offer to contact the Castle for?

2. Where does K. go with the people he meets on the road?

3. What is Barnabas' role, according to the letter from K.'s director?

4. What is the attitude of the people in the house toward K.?

5. Why does the teacher say the offer is a great favor?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens between K. and the assistants after Frieda gets up in the middle of the night at the school?

2. What is K.'s attitude toward the gentleman in Chapter IX?

3. What does K. suspect about Frieda, at the end of Chapter XII?

4. How does K. feel at the end of Chapter VIII?

5. How does the chairman characterize the Castle's bureaucracy?

6. What does the coachman tell K. about Klamm's arrival at the coach?

7. What reason does the teacher give that the chairman wants to help K.?

8. How does K. feel when he goes to see the village chairman?

9. What does K. ask Frieda about when he first meets her?

10. What impression does Frieda make when K. first meets her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The bureaucracy of the Castle seems to have no guiding force or leader, and is self-reinforcing, following only rules and regulations. Discuss the leaderless nature of the machine of bureaucracy.

1) Who assesses how well the bureaucracy of the Castle is functioning? What are the consequences?

2) How does the Castle itself function as a leader for the village? What are the consequences of the fact that the Castle is not a person, but an institution? What difference would it make if instead of a Castle, the village followed a King?

3) What controls the Castle? How is bureaucratic control different than control by a leader?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the role of social rules and pressure in THE CASTLE.

1) How does the community impose unwritten laws in THE CASTLE?

2) What are the consequences of defying unwritten laws in THE CASTLE? How do the consequences differ for K. and for Amalia's family?

3) What are the benefits and drawbacks of social conformity in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Prestige is an important element of culture in the village surrounding the Castle. Discuss the role of prestige in the novel.

1) What increases or decreases prestige in the novel?

2) Which characters value prestige and which do not?

3) What role does prestige play in the material position of the characters? Do the characters benefit by prestige?

(see the answer keys)

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