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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 spoils the sex between Jakob and Alex?
2. What do Athos' stories begin to do for Jakob?
3. What does Jacob see boys doing to produce squawks?
4. What happens in 1968, which is the opening to Book I?
5. Around which of Alex's friends does Jakob feel insecure?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is the Beskupin site?
2. Where is Jakob Beer at the opening of the novel, and what is he doing?
3. What did Jakob Beer witness as he hid in the bog?
4. What does Jakob sense from his hiding place as his family is killed?
5. How does Athos cause Jakob to understand the power of poetry?
6. Why does Athos choose Toronto as the place to relocate?
7. How does the relationship between Alex and Jakob evolve?
8. How does Athos relate natural phenomenon to railroads and the Holocaust?
9. What does Athos teach Jakob to cook, and why does Jakob stop going to the grocery store?
10. How does Bella continue to impact Jakob's life?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Athos tells about ancient Biskupin culture and his work to preserve the ruins. After the war, he learns that the Nazis had destroyed the excavations and killed Athos's colleagues shortly after he spirited Jakob to safety. It is the basis for Athos's belief that Jakob is responsible for saving him, more so than vice versa. Jakob meditates on how prisoners are forced to dig up the mass graves of early victims of Nazism as the perpetrators seek to cover up evidence. He pictures workers forced, like the stone carriers of Golleschau, to do the unthinkable: handle the gory remains of the dead.
1. Why do you think it is significant that the Nazis destroyed archeological ruins or historical sites? Discuss in depth the implications and what you believe may or may not have been lost in such destruction. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.
2. Discuss what you think might be the reasons Athos believes Jakob saved his life. Do you agree? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.
3. Discuss the mental and emotional tolls that must have been taken on the workers forced to do the handling of so many murdered Jews. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.
Essay Topic 2
Jakob offers the parable of a famed rabbi who travels incognito in shabby clothing and is ridiculed by passengers. When they find out who he is, they beg forgiveness, but he refuses, even on the Day of Awe, because they have wronged the man on the train, not himself. The moral: nothing erases an immoral act. When the victim is dead, only silence remains. Recorded history can be resurrected. Destruction turns presence into absence.
1. With research, explain what a parable is and why they might be used. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.
2. Do you think it is true that nothing erases an immoral act? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.
3. Discuss, in depth, what you think the following means: When the victim is dead, only silence remains. Recorded history can be resurrected. Destruction turns presence into absence. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.
Essay Topic 3
Often, authors will write about "what they know," and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the books more interesting. Discuss the following:
1. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Anne Michaels.
2. What in Michaels' background may have helped her in writing "Fugitive Pieces"? What may have influenced the way he depicts various characters and scenes?
3. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her novels? Why or why not? Give examples.
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This section contains 1,090 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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