View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Hajj Ali do for a living?

2. Who moves to Casablanca with Zahra?

3. How does Zahra feel at the start of Chapter 4?

4. What limb did Faqih loose in Vietnam?

5. What did Zahra see in Rahman's home?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the author of the introduction claim that "Year of the Elephant" is "an event in cross-cultural literary history"?

2. What happens to Zahra's husband in Chapter 4? How does she find out?

3. What was the education crisis Morocco faced in the 1950's?

4. How does Zahra's husband sneak Faqih out of town?

5. What is a "caid"?

6. Describe Abou Zayd's childhood and how it affected her writing.

7. What is the Year of the Elephant ?

8. Who raised Zahra and why could she not go back to their home?

9. How does Zahra decide to make a living and who taught her this skill?

10. What was Zahra's marriage proposal like? What happened at the wedding? What was the first year of marriage like?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Who is Zahra's faqih (note the spelling of faqih) and what role does he play in her life choices ?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the character of Zahra. How does Zahra change from the beginning to the end of the book "Year of the Elephant"? Why? Do you believe Zahra is innocent at any point of the book? When does she loose her innocence? Choose one other character in the book and explain their relationship with Zahra..

Essay Topic 3

How does Abu Zayd address the theme of independence in his "Year of the Elephant"? Choose two examples of examples of this theme and explain how these examples contribute to the message of the story.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 718 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample