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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. In A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem, what does Oskar recall doing when dad calls on September 11, 2001?

2. What does Albert Black do for a living?

3. What event does interviewee at the beginning of Happiness, Happiness describe?

4. How does Oskar respond to A.R. Black's announcement that he is quitting the search?

5. What natural occurrence does Ruth Black talk about in Alive and Alone?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is revealed by the long jump at the beginning of The Sixth Borough?

2. What is the living arrangement between Grandma and Thomas in Why I'm Not Where You Are?

3. What is Oskar's attitude toward Dr. Fein?

4. What major item movement happens between the sixth borough and and Manhattan as it drifts off?

5. What can Thomas not bring himself to tell Grandma at the end of Why I'm Not Where You Are?

6. What does does Thomas tell his son about his and and his former wife's location at the beginning Why I'm Not Where You Are?

7. How does Oskar overcome a phobia in Alive and Alone?

8. What does Thomas learn immediately before the bombing of Dresden begins?

9. What does Stephen Hawking say to Oskar in A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem?

10. In A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem, what does William Black reveal is the purpose of the key?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The end of the novel is a strangely happy one, though it does not contain anything that concretely resolves the conflicts of the novel. Write an essay about the ending of Oskar's narrative and what it means to him and to the reader:

Part 1) What is the resolution of the quest of the key? Discuss why William Black would need the key and why Dad had it in a vase. Does this resolution, in the end, offer anything illuminating to Oskar Schell regarding his father? How was the journey to this resolution more important than the destination?

Part 2) What understand do Oskar and his mother reach in the final chapter of the novel? What single request does he make of her and what concession does he give regarding her happiness? Does she make any concrete promises him regarding the future?

Part 3) Discuss the fantasy that ends the novel. What alternate reality does Oskar create for his father, beginning with his picture in the Stuff That Happened to Me book? How does this provide the novel with a bittersweet happy ending?

Essay Topic 2

Oskar Schell is a complex character, one that embodies both manic gregariousness and deep and unrelenting personal anguish. Write an essay about how those two facets of Oskar's personality in three parts:

Part 1) How would you describe Oskar's outward personality in the everyday world? Write a paragraph analyzing his relationship with those around him, focusing on his school life, his family life, and the way he interacts with the various Blacks he tracks down over the course of the novel.

Part 2) What does Oskar do in the privacy of his bedroom that indicates he is hiding some deep and unhealed pain in the wake of his father's death? How does this pain explode in a confrontation with his mother midway through the novel? What anger is he harboring toward her?

Part 3) Discuss the moment Oskar has with the limo driver, Gerald Thompson, on his way to his father's burial. How does the presentation of this interaction from both Oskar and Grandma's point of view reveal what is happening below the surface? How is Oskar's gregariousness a mask for his innate pain?

Essay Topic 3

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.

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