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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. How old is the narrator when he returns to Charlotte's home for the summer?

2. What was the nickname of Nicholas II at the time the narrator is in school?

3. Where do Charlotte and her children see a great many mutilated bodies?

4. What type of collection does the narrator recall unwrapping with his sister?

5. What stops if a child wanders into the room where the adults are talking?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator say about what makes French women alluring in photographs?

2. What does the narrator find interesting about the French play, "Les Femmes Savantes"?

3. How does Sergei find another way for the family to flee and what does Charlotte realize as they do so?

4. What is one of the childhood memories of Charlotte's that has left an impact on the narrator?

5. What happens after the death of Norbert?

6. Where does Albertine retreat?

7. Why does the narrator break into his grandmother's Siberian Suitcase?

8. What happens after the children are put to bed?

9. What does Charlotte do during the war and how does she react to her work?

10. What happens when Charlotte meets up with a soldier while she is on her way to Boyarsk?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The narration creates a sense of mystery, engaging the reader in the narrator's quest for truth. In this case, there are two different truths - what happened to Charlotte, and where does the narrator fit?

1. Explain what you think the above statements mean. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

2. Using just the text from the first chapter, argue whether the search for who is Charlotte is the most important aspect of the story or the problems of who the narrator is.

3. Explain what about the sense of mystery in the first chapter goaded you to continue reading the book. Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Over the course of "Dreams of My Russian Summers", the narrator grows as a person in both complexity and understanding. Dreams of My Russian Summers might be considered a slice of the narrator's larger story of his "coming of age." It might be said that Dreams of My Russian Summers is a "bildungsroman" of the narrator. Discuss the following:

1. Define Bildungsroman, or "Coming of Age," and give several examples from literature you have read.

2. Trace and analyze the character of the narrator as he changes from a more carefree, innocent boy to a wiser, young man. What are the significant events that change him?

3. After thoroughly analyzing the narrator's growth throughout "Dreams of My Russian Summers", do you think "Dreams of My Russian Summers" could be considered the narrator's Coming of Age story? Why or why not?

4. Are there any other characters in "Dreams of My Russian Summers" who go through a Coming of Age experience? Who? Why do you think so?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze the theme of growth in "Dreams of My Russian Summers". 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 courage in "Dreams of My Russian Summers". Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to possess courage? Why?

3. Trace and analyze the theme of death in "Dreams of My Russian Summers". Consider not only the physical deaths but the death of innocence or the death of ignorance.

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