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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 K. tell Schwarzer he is?

2. How does the teacher say K. treated the chairman?

3. What does K. think of the Castle when he goes to look at it?

4. What does the letter praise?

5. Who leases the inn to the landlady and landlord?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does K. call Artur and Jeremias and why?

2. What does Klamm write about K.'s assistants, and how does this compare to the reality of K.'s assistants' roles?

3. To what does the landlady attribute the profitability of the inn?

4. What do Artur and Jeremias know about land surveying?

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

6. Who are the people in the house K. stops at on his way toward the Castle?

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

8. What happens when K. first wakes up the morning after meeting Frieda?

9. What does K. do to get fuel for a fire?

10. What use does Frieda think the position offered to K. might serve?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the setting of the novel.

1) Discuss the Castle as part of the setting of the novel. Why does the reader never visit the inside of the Castle? How does the reader learn about the Castle? What does the appearance and structure of the Castle say about it and about the village?

2) How does the setting of the village influence the novel?

3) Why do the inns become a major part of the novel's setting? What is the importance of the two inns in the novel?

4) What significance does the schoolhouse have as a setting?

Essay Topic 2

In the novel, the motivations of people are often open to question. Discuss the significance of the ambiguity of characters' motivations.

1) Are K.'s motivations clear? What are his possible motivations for being with Frieda? Do his motivations make a difference? What do you think of K.'s argument that his motivations don't necessarily matter?

2) What are conflicting reports of Frieda's motivations? How ambiguous are her motives? How important is it that other people can't necessarily ever fully understand her motivations?

3) How does the obscurity of the workings of the Castle compare to the obscurity of the motives of the characters?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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