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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 Okada ask Jiro to do?

2. What does the puppet say about curiosity?

3. What does Mochida say when he grabs Jiro?

4. What does Jiro find where he is preparing to practice?

5. How do the boys treat Jiro?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Jiro think about concerning arranging a meeting with Saburo?

2. What does Jiro beg Kinshi to do and what is Kinshi's reply?

3. How does Jiro arrange the meeting with Okada?

4. What does Jiro conclude after seeing the Samurai sword?

5. Describe the latest theft Saburo pulls off.

6. What happens when the boys are sewing and practicing later that night and how does Yoshida react?

7. Describe the conversation between Okada and Jiro.

8. What does Okada tell Jiro and how does Jiro react?

9. How does Joman avoid being executed?

10. What does Yoshida ask Jiro and then tell Jiro to do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In this story, the gap between people's wealth and their social position is particularly large. This is because it is a time of famine, and the farmers are forced to give most of their food to the daimyos. The rice merchants have grown extremely rich while the farmers and other peasants are poor and starving. The samurai might be considered very important on the social scale, but Jiro tells us that even some of the samurai are starving on very small rice stipends. This has made people very angry and restless, as the lowliest and undeserving members of society, the merchants are getting rich and fat while those who should be more important starve. The famine has only made these feelings worse, and has caused the peasants of the city to become desperate.

1. Compare a day in the life of a peasant with a day in the life of a Lord in feudal Japan. Use examples from The Master Puppeteer to support your reasoning.

2. Do you think the rice merchants have an obligation to feed the masses? Why or why not? Use examples from The Master Puppeteer to support your reasoning.

3. What kinds of behaviors do you think desperate, starving people will display and how does starvation of the masses enter into many revolutions in countries? Use examples from The Master Puppeteer to support your reasoning.

Essay Topic 2

Characters are an integral and important part of almost all novels. Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast the characters of Jiro and Kinshi. How are they similar? How are they different? Is there a flaw in each of their personalities? Be specific and give examples.

2. Compare/contrast the characters of Saburo and Kinshi. How do they seem different? Which do you like more? Why? Which one seems more of a well-rounded character?

3. Thoroughly analyze how three of the secondary characters in The Master Puppeteer help drive the plot and what their contribution is to the storyline. Are any of the secondary characters unnecessary? Indispensable? Which of the secondary characters are likable? Which are either unlikable or even despicable? Be specific and give examples.

Essay Topic 3

There are a number of interesting questions raised by The Master Puppeteer. Questions that Peterson most likely want readers to consider and think through carefully. Discuss the following:

1. What does the term "author agenda" mean?

2. Name one idea/concept you think may have been a part of the Peterson' agenda. Analyze that idea throughout the book and discuss Peterson' probable agenda concerning that idea.

2. Do you think writers who have an agenda for writing should point it out in a preface?

3. How often do you think fiction is written with a clear agenda in mind by the author?

4. Research the life of Peterson and see if/where his life may have influenced his writing.

(see the answer keys)

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