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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. What does Hanna's mother refuse to do?

2. What does Hanna often do with a flower she steals here and there?

3. What does Hanna's father do with Oma?

4. How does Hanna's father meet Hanna's mother?

5. What was Matthias once training to be?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Matthias tell Hanna about his life as a priest in training?

2. Who is Siegfried Tegern and what does he dream?

3. How does Hanna's father end up marrying a different woman than the one to whom he is first engaged?

4. Describe Matthias Berger.

5. What is rumored about the child of the local midwife?

6. What does Trudi call Hanna's father's actions concerning his marriage and what does Hanna think about that?

7. Describe the narrator of these stories.

8. How is Trudi treated as a child?

9. Describe Klara's romance with an American soldier.

10. Who is Klara Blocker?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rolf confronts Hanna about the joke. Hanna becomes angry and tells him that his father abandoned him because he did not want him. Rolf has never been told the truth about his father, therefore he is deeply upset by Hanna's words. When Rolf does not return home that night, a search is organized. The following morning Hanna finds Rolf near the river. Hanna tells him all she knows about his American soldier father. Rolf sends Hanna to learn more. Finally Rolf agrees to go home.

1. From the information given on Hanna's pranks, do you think she carried pranks too far? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think Hanna was wrong for telling Rolf about his father? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss the ways in which Rolf's knowledge of his father might change his life. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze the theme of growth in Floating in My Mother's Palm. Consider the following questions as you write: What characters are most concerned with growth? Why? What are some symbols of growth? Symbols of rigidity? What characters seem rigid?

2. Trace and analyze the theme of love in Floating in My Mother's Palm. Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to possess courage? Why?

3. Trace and analyze the theme of death in Floating in My Mother's Palm.

Essay Topic 3

Floating in My Mother's Palm belongs to the general fiction genre. Discuss the following:

1. Define the literary term "genre" and give several examples of three other genres in addition to the general fiction genre.

2. Discuss two reasons why it might be useful to label a text by genre and two reasons it might be disadvantageous to label a text by genre.

3. What do you think is the difference between a general fiction novel and a mystery?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 934 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample