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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 Alfa think his fellow soldiers prefer to think might kill them?

2. What color eyes do Alfa's enemy soldiers always have?

3. Why was it particularly dangerous for Alfa to do what he did with Mademba's body in Chapter II?

4. What does Alfa understand that Captain Armand wants on the battlefield, but not back in the trenches?

5. What does the voice inside Alfa's head tell him as he stayed with Mademba when Mademba was dying?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Alfa receive the Croix de Guerre, a medal of honor?

2. What phrase does Alfa Ndiaye begin repeating immediately in Part I?

3. Why does Alfa think both the Germans and his own allied soldiers flee from him?

4. What is the cultural attitude from Alfa's culture towards the symbol of a totem?

5. How does Alfa always kill the German soldiers he kills after Mademba's death?

6. What was the purpose of the joking relationship between Alfa and Mademba?

7. Why does Alfa feel almost entirely responsible for Mademba's death?

8. Why does Jean-Baptiste decide to goad the enemy into killing him?

9. How does Mademba Diop die?

10. What does Alfa say he becomes when he goes out to seek the vengeance on German's for Mademba's death?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Alfa view Captain Armand's slaughter of his own soldiers who had refused to obey his orders? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Why does Alfa feel that he owes his best friend Mademba deeply, and in the end of the novel, how does Alfa seem to fulfill what he sees as his debt or obligation to the deceased Mademba? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

How does Alfa's father change after the disappearance of Alfa's mother? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 700 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample