The Song of Achilles

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following best describes the relationship between Patroclus and his father?

A) Emotionally fulfilling

B) Healthily competitive

C) Dismissively disapproving

D) Physically draining

2. Which words best describe Patroclus’s initial meeting with Achilles?

A) Electric

B) Dignified

C) Parsimonious

D) Ordinary

3. During Achilles and Patroclus’s time together on Mount Pelion, Chiron remarks, “Perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth, when another is gone. Do you think?” (Chapter 9). Based on the novel’s ending, which of the following literary terms best describes the impact of this quote?

A) An allusion to the great love stories of Aphrodite

B) A metaphor for the pain of loss

C) A paradox to the nature of love and grief

D) A foreshadowing of the end of the story

4. Which of the following phrases best summarizes how Miller depicts the character Thetis throughout the novel?

A) Austere and benevolent

B) Cold and foreboding

C) Generous and suppliant

D) Loving and nurturing

5. Which of the following ideas best summarizes what Mount Pelion represents for Achilles and Patroclus?

A) A carefree and blissful existence

B) A shameful place of hiding and sorrow

C) A turning point in their development as surgeons

D) An escape from the horrors of battle

6. Which of the following phrases best describes the initial encounter between Achilles and Agamemnon in Chapter 17?