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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. Who does Luzhin's father invite to Luzhin's birthday?

2. What does Luzhin do immediately after proposing to his future wife?

3. What year does Luzhin's father begin to write a novel whose main character is a chess-playing boy like his son?

4. What does the doctor give to Luzhin?

5. What painting does Luzhin take note of in his fiancee's parents' home?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Luzhin's father die?

2. How does Luzhin react to being caught cutting school?

3. The morning after the party, what are relations like between Luzhin's father, his aunt, and his mother?

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

5. How doe Luzhin's fiancee seem like a dream to him?

6. What happens when Luzhin is found hiding in his family's house at the end of Chapter 1?

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

8. How does Luzhin behave on walks with his future wife and her mother?

9. Why does Luzhin's mother leave her husband and son to return to Russia, and how does Luzhin's father react?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss fulfillment in the novel.

1) What motivates characters to pursue the activities they pursue? What motivates Luzhin? What motivates his wife?

2) Where do characters in the novel find fulfillment? Are any of the characters successful in feeling fulfilled?

3) What prevents fulfillment? How do characters perceive others' desires for or quests for fulfillment? How do characters conflict over what makes them fill fulfilled?

Essay Topic 2

Luzhin is a master chess player. Discuss chess in the novel.

1) When Luzhin sees a chess board, the pieces are just placeholders. He perceives something entirely abstract behind the board. What is it that Luzhin perceives? Why is it appealing to him? What does his relationship with chess show about his personality?

2) Near the end of the novel, Luzhin sees his life as a chess game. How is his life like a game of chess? Who is his opponent? What is he attempting to win? How does the chess analogy show how Luzhin is perceiving his world and his limitations in perceiving the world?

3) Why does Luzhin feel the need to hide his love for chess? In what ways is Luzhin ambivalent about chess? Is chess truly deadly unhealthy for Luzhin, as his psychiatrist says?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the intellectual versus the social in the novel.

1) How does Luzhin fit into the intellectual world? How does he fit into the social world? How do these two worlds conflict?

2) How does Luzhin's wife fit into the intellectual and social worlds in the novel? How does this affect their relationship?

3) How does Luzhin's father fit into the intellectual an social worlds in the novel? How does this affect their relationship?

(see the answer keys)

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