1.
What is significant
about the outrage of the man in bowler hat towards the narrator’s daughter
running naked on the beach, and what does it say about the attitudes of the
locals towards outsiders? (303)
2.
What complaints does
the narrator offer concerning both "foreigners" and the local Italian
population? How do these complaints shape the narrator's reaction to Cipolla's
performance?
3.
What is the
significance of Cipolla's physical deformity and drinking habit? Why are these
elements important to his characterization?
4.
As
a general observation, is Mann correct when he speaks of the “curious, self-satisfied air so characteristic
of the deformed,” which he states to be possessed by Cipolla (308)?
5.
The show begins when
the giovanotto calls out “buona sera,” and proceeds with repartee between
him and Cipolla. Cipolla also says to
him “people like you are just in my line. I can use them.” Do these exchanges demonstrate
that Cipolla’s show is improvisational in nature? (309)
6. What is Cippolla's goal that he wants to acheive as a performer?
7.
Why does Cipolla state
that the giovanotto is unwell (“anyone can see that you are not feeling too
well”) (314)
8.
Why does the narrator
compare the family not leaving until intermission to them not leaving Torre earlier
(“For things had been in Torre in general – queer, uncomfortable, troublesome,
tense, oppressive – so precisely they were here in this hall tonight’)? (p. 321)
9.
Cipolla is a much more
effective hypnotist than magician. Why do you think Mann makes this
distinction?
10.
Why does Mann give us
a foreshadowing of Cippola’s demise when he writes “Yet I see no reason at all
to cast doubt, on rational grounds, upon powers that, before our very eyes, became
fatal to their possessor?” (p. 320)
11.
Why on page 330 does Cipolla
say to Mario, pointing to his cheek, “Kiss me, trust me, I love thee, kiss me
here.”
12.
Cipolla is killed by
one of his own victims. What is the significance of Cipolla's death at the
hands of Mario?
13.
Much of the audience
is horrified to witness Cipolla's assassination, yet the narrator views it as a
liberation and leaves calmly with his family. Why do you believe his reaction
is so different from that of the rest of the audience?
14.
Is Mario justified in
killing Cipolla?
15.
What do you make of
the narrator's attitudes towards "Southern" and "Northern"
Europeans? What differences does the narrator note between the two groups
