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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. As she watches images of the Towers falling, what does she say she is full of?

2. What is the first business that Oskar consults about the key in Googolplex?

3. What request does Grandma make of her sister Anna in My Feelings?

4. What role does Oskar play in Hamlet?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. When does Grandma first see Thomas in Dresden?

2. How do the Blacks of chapters past reappear in this chapter?

3. What is the significance of the storage unit in The Only Animal?

4. What ideas does Oskar Schell come up with in the beginning of What The?

5. How does Thomas Schell Sr. speak after losing his voice?

6. What is Oskar's attitude toward Jimmy?

7. Describe the phone call between Mom and Grandma in My Feelings.

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

9. Describe Oskar's first stop on his quest.

10. What does Grandma do the day before Dresden is bombed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Two objects in Oskar Schell's life consume him and hold him captive. They dictate how he feels and what he does with his life. Write an essay about these two items, the hold they have over Oskar, and how he resolves his connection to them:

Part 1) What is the significance of the phone and answering machine that Oskar keeps under his bed? Discuss the messages that are contained on it. Why does Oskar listen the them so often and never tell his mother about them. Who does he eventually play the messages for and why?

Part 2) Discuss the key that inspires Oskar to begin his city-wide quest. What clues about its significance emerge as he investigates? How does the key become the central driver of plot in the novel? What, in the end is the purpose of the key and how does learning this truth affect Oskar Schell?

Essay Topic 2

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is, at its roots, a study of human yearning for love in the face of brutal cataclysm. In the novel, characters lose each other and find each other in the crucible of tragedy. Write an essay about this in three parts:

Part 1) What is lost to the major character of the novel in the wake of the attack of September 11, 2001? How are existing bonds strengthened in the wake of this tragedy? In this paragraph, discuss the relationships among Oskar, Mom, and Grandma.

Part 2) Write a paragraph about the bombing of Dresden. How does this horrific event of World War II affect the Schell and Schmidt families? Who is lost in this bombing? How does the bombing, in the end, lead to another marriage and the birth of a child?

Part 3) In summation, discuss how a marriage that was destroyed by the memories of Dresden is reunited in the wake of September 11th. Who returns to whom in the aftermath? What characters begin to learn about their roots as a result of this reunion?

Essay Topic 3

The three central characters of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close have all lost someone key to their lives and are painfully lost and isolated as a result. Write an essay about each of their isolation. What is missing from their lives since the loss? How do they deal with this pain on a day to day basis, and what emotions pervade as a result? Who attempts to reach out to them and how do they respond?

Part 1) Thomas Schell, Sr.

Part 2) Grandma.

Part 3) Oskar Schell.

(see the answer keys)

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