View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the traditional day of commemoration of the Armenian genocide?

2. What job was Balakian working at when he began reading as much as he could about the Armenian genocide, in "Before the Nazis"?

3. In what year was Morgenthau appointed ambassador to Turkey?

4. In what year was the term genocide coined?

5. What disease did Balakian's grandmother almost die from when the family was in Aleppo?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Balakian's aunts justify the family's inability to talk about the genocide when he was a child?

2. Why did the Armenians form reform movements under Ottoman rule during the 1890s?

3. According to Aunt Gladys, why did the Armenians in America never talk about the genocide?

4. What was the deeper significance of the way in which Dovey's father was killed?

5. What was Nafina's reaction to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?

6. How has the Turkish government used its influence to prevent honest discussion of the Armenian genocide over the years?

7. What was significant about Nafina's attempt to seek compensation from the Turkish government by filing documents in the United States?

8. How did the atmosphere of Syria differ from that of Lebanon when Balakian visited in 2005?

9. How has Turkey's denial of the genocide affected its development as a modern nation?

10. Why did Aunt Anna likely embrace surrealism rather than realism in literature?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To this day, the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge the deaths of Armenians as genocide. Why would the government continue to deny atrocities committed long before current Turks were even alive? How does the denial of past crimes affect the development of a nation? Can Turkey ever be considered a part of the community of modern, humane nations as long as it continues to deny the genocide? What would a confession mean to the Turkish people today? How important is critical self-evaluation to the development of a nation?

Essay Topic 2

Balakian did not learn about the Armenian genocide or his own family's experiences until he sought out that information as an adult. Even then, some family members questioned what he was doing. Did his family do him a disservice by hiding the truth from him for so many years? Would knowing the past have enabled him to have a different, deeper understanding of the ways his family members lived their lives in America? Or did keeping the truth from him enable him to have a normal American childhood before delving into the past on his own? Did his family's "protection" of him give him a solid ground on which to stand while confronting the horrific events of the past?

Essay Topic 3

The Turkish government has never apologized for the Armenian genocide and the world has moved on. What impact, if any, would an official Turkish apology have on the Armenian people today? Is it possible for an apology to be delivered a century later? How would the Armenian people benefit from an apology before the world? Would it free them? Would it free the Turks?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,212 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample