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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. Whose telephone call does Luzhin eavesdrop on during the party?

2. What nickname do the other boys call Luzhin?

3. What did Luzhin place in the German chess tournament in his youth?

4. During their walk the morning after the party, what does Luzhin's father suggest he take up?

5. What is Luzhin's father's profession?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does Luzhin nearly run into on the first day he skips school?

2. How does Luzhin feel about playing chess blind?

3. How does Luzhin's father compare his son to fictional characters?

4. Describe Luzhin's future wife when he meets her in Germany.

5. Before playing with his son, how does Luzhin's father consider his own chess abilities?

6. Why does Luzhin hide during his father's party?

7. How does Luzhin's future wife feel about introducing him to her family?

8. When Luzhin watches the chess game between his classmates, what move excites him?

9. What authors does Luzhin like to read?

10. Why does Luzhin's father decide that the boy he wants to write about, based on his son, will die young?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss art and reflections of reality in the novel.

1) How is Luzhin's father's writing a reflection of reality? How is it a projection of his father's desires, a world of wish fulfillment? How does his writing compare to reality?

2) How do Luzhin's drawings reflect reality, and how do they reflect his perception of reality?

3) How is Luzhin's chess playing an art, and how is it not an art? How does it relate and compare to music? How does it reflect reality? How does it show Luzhin's perception of reality and his own wish fulfillment?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss conscious and unconscious awareness in the novel.

1) Is Luzhin conscious of what he wants, needs, and feels? How does he relate to his own feelings? What goes on below the surface in his mind?

2) How conscious is Luzhin's wife of her own motivations, needs, and feelings? How does she explain her motivations to herself?

3) How conscious are Luzhin's in-laws, parents, and psychiatrist of their own motivations and what drives them? How is Luzhin's father aware of his drives and needs?

Essay Topic 3

Luzhin's father expects his son to follow the patterns of the father's novels. Discuss Luzhin's father's expectations.

1) What effects do his father's expectations have on Luzhin? How much is Luzhin aware of his father's expectations, and how does he react to them?

2) How are Luzhin's father's expectations echoed in his wife's expectations?

3) What would Luzhin's father's relationship with a normal, average son be like? How would his expectations play out?

(see the answer keys)

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