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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. The Usher’s Wife tells K. that yesterday, the Examining Magistrate sent the student to her with a gift of what in “In the Empty Conference Hall – The Student – The Offices”?

2. The first book in the courtroom that K. looks at in “In the Empty Conference Hall – The Student – The Offices” is a book of what?

3. What word from “The Thrasher” refers to a dishonest, knavish person?

4. The supervisor who enters K.’s home after the guards in “The Arrest” tells him, “Think less about us and what is going to happen to you, think more about” what?

5. What subordinate bank employee is described in “The Arrest” as having an “intolerable smile caused by a chronic muscular spasm”?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is K. incapable of handling his trial in the same ways that he handles his work at the bank?

2. What relationship to the legal system does Fraülein Bürstner say she has in “A Conversation with Frau Grubach”?

3. Where does the Usher lead K. in “In the Empty Conference Hall – The Student – The Offices”? How is this setting described?

4. How is the atmosphere of the setting described in “In the Empty Conference Hall – The Student – The Offices”?

5. How is K.’s resistance to the system perceived in “In the Empty Conference Hall – The Student – The Offices”?

6. How are the people in the courtroom situated in “The First Hearing”? How is this arrangement symbolic?

7. What does Franz say when he grovels to K. for help in “The Thrasher”?

8. How is the Examining Magistrate described in “The First Hearing”? What does he ask K.?

9. What is Josef K.’s central plight in “The Arrest”? How does he go about achieving his goal?

10. Why does the Thrasher tell K. he shouldn’t believe everything the guards say in “The Thrasher”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the existentialist, absurdist, surrealist, and experimental modernist movements of literature. How do critics and scholars define the style of Kafka’s works? What different genres comprise Kafka’s body of works? What elements of these literary styles can be seen in The Trial?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of gender roles and expectations in the novel. How does K. perceive the women around him? How are K.’s actions toward these female characters different from his actions toward male characters?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze and discuss the character of Josef K. as the protagonist of The Trial. What was K.’s life like prior to the arrival of the guards that appear in “The Arrest”? What is K.’s position within his society? What do you find to be K.’s “fatal flaw” in the story?

(see the answer keys)

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