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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. When did Babi hear that Piri's parents were coming?

2. What did Piri see in the river the morning after the battle?

3. What did Piri know about the political situation in 1939?

4. What did Rozsi say in her letters home?

5. In what voice is 'Upon the Head of A Goat' narrated?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Piri's mother react to this encounter with the group of boys?

2. Why did Piri's mother express concern over Rozsi?

3. Describe the woman mother helped.

4. What news did Piri get from Lilli?

5. Discuss Farenc's return to Babi's farm.

6. Describe Piri's relationship with Farenc.

7. Describe the family's Hanukkah.

8. Describe Piri's return to Beregszasz.

9. How did Piri communicate with her family in Beregszasz?

10. What happened when Piri's mother inquired into sending the girls to America?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what extent is this merely a story of Piri's self-discovery, in which she learned to pay attention to her own impressions and acquired a knowledge of adult facts like injustice and suffering and the relativity of human ideas? How much is Piri the subject of her own memoir? What other topics compete with herself?

Essay Topic 2

How does Piri handle the fact that her parents were repeatedly asked to send her away from the war, but did not--and paid the price with their own lives? How does Piri overcome the guilt that comes with having survived something the others did not? Even if the guilt is not explicitly mentioned, if you guess that it's there, how does it change your reading of the memoir?

Essay Topic 3

How does Siegal distinguish the memoir genre from the novel? How is 'Upon the Head of a Goat' literary in spite of itself? What novelistic features does 'Upon the Head of a Goat' have (allusions, foreshadowing, symbols, plotting) and how does Siegal make attempts to keep the writing real and urgent and true to life?

(see the answer keys)

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