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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 words does Oskar Schell tell Abby Black define her in The Only Animal?

2. Which of the following is not something Grandma remembers as she sits with Oskar in My Feelings?

3. What is tattooed on Thomas's right palm when Grandma sees him in Manhattan in My Feelings?

4. What nationality is the prisoner that writes Grandma as a girl?

5. In Why I'm Not Where You Are, Thomas says he would give anything never to think of what again?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does married life become a series of negotiations for Grandma and Thomas Schell, Sr. in Why I'm Not Where You Are?

2. What do Abby Black and Oskar Schell talk about in The Only Animal?

3. How does Thomas Schell's silence affect his living situation?

4. What is Oskar's attitude toward Jimmy?

5. What did Oskar Schell do with the phone after his father's call on September 11, 2001?

6. What happens to Oskar when he arrives home on September 11, 2001?

7. What do Grandma and Anna do the night before the bombing of Dresden?

8. What cautionary story does Grandma's own grandmother tell in her letter in My Feelings?

9. What surprise awaits Grandma the day of her son's funeral?

10. Why does Grandma get samples of letters as a child in My Feelings?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the relationship between Grandma and her sister Anna. Focus primarily on the period immediately before the bombing of Dresden. How is one girl experiencing sexuality at the same time as another is experiencing an innocent curiosity about sexually? How are they both bound to Thomas Schell, Sr. before the bombing happens? To what extent is Anna's death instrumental in bringing Grandma and Thomas together in America?

Essay Topic 2

Oskar Schell is a character with a number of idiosyncrasies: collecting odd pictures, contacting famous scientists, and punching himself. Write an essay in which you choose three idiosyncrasies and analyze the root of their existence. What purpose do they serve in Oskar's daily life? How does he use them to fend off sadness, embarrassment, and fear? Do any of them appear to be inherited in some respect from his father? Sum up the essay by discussing what Oskar fears in the wake of his father's death and what he wants out of life, connecting these objectives to the character ticks that define him.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the role that the past plays in defining the present in the novel. How is every major character in the novel a product of past that they may or may not know? To what extent are Grandma and Thomas Schell, Sr., the keepers of this history? Why do they choose not to explicate this history to the younger generations of the novel? In the end, how does the younger generation, as represented by Oskar, discover the reality of its roots through accidental contact with the older?

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