Tissue Quizzes

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Tissue Quiz

1 Why is the title of the poem "Tissue?"
Paper is thin and allows the sun to shine through.

Human skin is a type of tissue.

The title alludes to both meanings of the word in the poem: thin paper and human skin.

The poet needed to blow her nose.
2 What is the poem's meter?
blank verse

free verse

iambic tetrameter

iambic pentameter
3 What is the poem's form?
nine quatrains

twelve couplets

nine quatrains and a single line

ten quatrains
4 What does paper most relate to in the poem?
Waste

Books

Fragility and beauty of life

Impermanence and ugliness of life
5 What is one way in which paper is NOT considered in the poem?
Buildings made of paper

The search for knowledge

The environmental impact

Economic records
6 According to the speaker, what could alter things?
Paper that is thin from lack of care

Paper that is thick and durable

Paper that lets the light shine through

Capitals and monuments
7 What was written in the back of the Koran?
Diary

Architectural designs

Family histories

Grocery lists
8 Which of the following is a simile?
"An architect could use all this, / place layer over layer, luminous / script over numbers over line,"

"might fly our lives like paper kites"

"with living tissue, raise a structure"

"Fine slips from grocery shops / that say how much was sold"
9 Which of the following is NOT an example of alliteration?
"transparent, // turned into your skin"

"pages smoothed and stroked"

"never wish to build again with brick // or block"

"has written in the names and histories"
10 What point(s) of view is/are present in the poem?
First and second person

Second and third person

First person

Third person
11 What is the metaphor in the following lines: "An architect could use all this, / place layer over layer, luminous / script over numbers over line"?
Architects are compared to writers.

The products of writing are compared to building materials.

Layers are compared to strata in the earth.

Writing is compared to living.
12 Who is the protagonist?
The speaker's mother who meditates on paper and the transitive nature of life

Ayesha Dharker

Imtiaz Dharker

The speaker who meditates on paper and the transitive nature of life
13 Who is the antagonist?
Human hubris that believes in immortality and permanence

Human hubris that causes someone to write in the holy book

Human hubris that causes someone to think they can remember business records without writing them down

God
14 What is the poem's tone?
Prideful, Self-Aware, Constructive

Humble, Self-Deprecating, Facetious

Meditative, Hesitant, Constructive, Angry

Meditative, Constructive, Humble
15 What is the poem's conflict?
Throughout history, many people have constructed buildings they think will last forever

Throughout history, paper buildings have been known to not last

Throughout history, many people have not wanted to consider mortality because it is against their religion

Throughout history, many people have not wanted to consider mortality because it makes them feel fragile
16 What is a synecdoche?
a literary technique that places opposite things or ideas next to one another in order to draw out their contrast.

a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated

the repeating of consonant sounds right next to each other, which creates a memorable or melodic effect.

a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa,
17 Which is an example of a synecdoche?
The image of "a hand" writing a genealogy into the back of the Koran

The architect who represents the creator

The skin of the reader

Maps
18 What is the poem's setting?
An attic where the speaker comes across the Koran

Ancient civilizations

The setting takes place in the speaker's mind as the reader is guided through various mediations on paper.

An office where the architect designs paper buildings
19 What is significant about the poem's setting?
The setting helps tell a story about finding the Koran and converting to Islam.

Setting is not significant

The poem is more focused on meditating on the transient nature of life using the metaphor of paper than on telling a specific story.

The poem is more focused on providing random images that do not relate to each other than on telling a specific story.
20 What does it mean to "alter" something?
to place it on an altar with the intention of sacrifice and prayer

to give something to a priest

to attempt to preserve it

to change it or cause a change in its character or composition
21 How do the pages of the Koran become transparent in the poem?
They are touched and smoothed often, showing the care with which the owner handles the book

They are very dusty, showing the way the book was in the attic for many years

They are handled by children who love to read the stories

They are handled very roughly, leading to the book's decay
22 What do architects do?
Demolition

Take part in the construction

Neglect aesthetics in favor of functionality

Design buildings
23 What does the architect become in the poem?
The speaker

The creator

An engineer

Muhammad
24 How does the poet portray our relationship with the economic system in the poem?
The slips of paper with a grocery's business records crush our lives like a building

The slips of paper with a grocery's business records fly our lives like a brick kite

The slips of paper with a grocery's business records show that the speaker is in debt

The slips of paper with a grocery's business records fly our lives like a paper kite
25 Which image is repeated throughout the poem?
Light shining through paper

People relying on maps

People's hubris

Paper as beautiful and thick

Tissue Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Tissue is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for Tissue

Tissue study guide contains a biography of Imtiaz Dharker, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

Read the Study Guide for Tissue…