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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. According to Stillman, how is man like an egg?

2. What do Auster and the narrator find in the Stillman's apartment?

3. What is Quinn wearing when he first begins writing notes about the Stillman case in Chapter 5?

4. From which historic landmark does Quinn telephone Virginia Stillman for the thirteenth time?

5. What does Quinn do to alleviate his boredom while following Stillman?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the financial and societal status of the Stillman family? Where do the Stillmans come from?

2. At the end of Chapter 13, what does the narrator reveal about himself? How did he become involved in the story?

3. What is the message spelled out by the letters of the maps in Chapter 8? What does this message reveal to Quinn about Stillman?

4. What job does Virginia Stillman hire Auster to do? How does she expect him to start?

5. What does Quinn believe is the key to effective detective work? Does his theory prove to be correct? Why or why not?

6. While Quinn is living in the alleyway in Chapter 12, what is his sleep schedule like? How is he able to measure the amount of time he has been sleeping?

7. In the telephone calls in Chapter 1, with whom is Quinn confused? What is the nature of this person's work?

8. In Chapter 12, why does Quinn finally decide to leave the alleyway? Who is the first person he contacts and what information does this person provide?

9. What interests Auster about the authorship of Don Quixote? According to Auster, what was the experiment that Don Quixote was conducting?

10. In the waiting room, what is the girl's opinion of the William Wilson novel that Quinn wrote? What is Quinn's reaction to her opinion?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Letters are important objects in The New York Trilogy. How do these objects impulse the action of the narrative? Give two specific examples from The Locked Room.

Essay Topic 2

Doubles are an important element in City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room. Give an example of the use of doubles in each of these stories. What is the function of the double? What does the use of the double communicate about reality and certainty?

Essay Topic 3

What is the role of violence in The New York Trilogy? Is violence a significant theme in all three stories? Why or why not? Give specific examples from the text.

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