View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Camus, what is tiresome about the human attitude to fate?
(a) It hasn't changed in a thousand years.
(b) We take credit for happiness, but blame fate for what crushes us.
(c) It is unrealistic.
(d) It tends to make us inactive.

2. Identify the literary device Camus uses in: 'Even men without a gospel have their Mount of Olives'.
(a) The device is an example of onomatopoeia.
(b) The device is a metaphor.
(c) The device is personification.
(d) The device is an example of transubstantiation.

3. What comment has Camus to make about Malraux?
(a) He is an unappreciated genius.
(b) His thought is bracing.
(c) His thought is inspirational and pure.
(d) His thought is confusingly expressed.

4. Of what figurative device is: 'These are our nights of Gethsemane'?
(a) It is an illusion.
(b) It is an example of decorative prose.
(c) It is an example of idiomatic phrasing.
(d) It is a metaphor.

5. What is the main idea in the final paragraph of the essay 'The Myth of Sisyphus'?
(a) The struggle for achievement is enough: it is its own reward.
(b) We can't be free unless the gods allow it.
(c) No matter how hard we struggle, the gods will always win.
(d) All we can do is struggle.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the legendary Faust remembered for?

2. In The Castle, what is significant about the character Amalia?

3. In what way are people's minds related?

4. What embodies 'a drama of the intelligence', according to Camus?

5. What does Oedipus' remark imply?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were Sisyphus's sins against the gods, for which he was punished?

2. What does Camus say is tiresome about the human heart (p. 115 of the Penguin edition)?

3. According to Camus, should don Juan be punished?

4. How did Sisyphus attempt to test his wife's love?

5. Why is Sisyphus completely appropriate as the absurd hero?

6. Why does Camus wonder if an absurd work of art is truly possible?

7. In mentioning the Diary (p. 100 of the Penguin edition), to what does Camus draw attention?

8. According to Camus, what is the one serious problem for philosophy?

9. What is Camus' basic criticism of phenomenology?

10. According to Camus, what must we take into consideration when reading the works of Franz Kafka?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 968 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample