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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 Utz believe art collections should belong to?

2. What covers Utz's coffin?

3. What does the narrator say is always possible in Prague?

4. How does the narrator describe Utz's face?

5. What does the bear symbolize?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Utz develop his theory about porcelain collecting?

2. Why do the Jews think Adam was the first golem?

3. How does Rabbi Loew stop Yossel from running amok?

4. Describe the stuffed bear in the Hotel Bristol.

5. What does Utz's funeral suggest about him as a person?

6. How did Utz's grandmother ignite Utz's interest in Porcelain collecting?

7. Why does the narrator's friend send him to meet Utz?

8. How did the communist state divert people's attentions from the Christian rituals of Utz's funeral?

9. What does the narrator observe about Utz's porcelain?

10. Why does Dr. Orlik study the household fly?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the values of the 1980s.

1. In what ways are the characters a product of their time?

2. How does the play express the changes Czechoslovakia was going through at the time?

3. Does modern society share any values with 1980s Czechoslovakia?

Essay Topic 2

Identify the main themes of the story. In what way are these themes relevant to the period? How does the author use character and setting to express these themes?

Essay Topic 3

In 1992, George Sluizer directed a film version of Utz. How did the filmmakers adapt the themes to fit in with the new environment? How did these changes affect the meaning of the story?

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