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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 does Jonathan suspect about the parents of the boy who was killed in the war?

2. Who is the stranger who gathers the soldiers?

3. What has happened to Jonathan's shoes as a result of the battle?

4. Why does the Corporal get angry when a soldier in Rocktown fires a shot into the air?

5. What does Jonathan realize as the enemy officers get closer?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when the Corporal orders the men to organize themselves into lines?

2. How does the feeling of Jonathan's gun in his hands change as he prepares to fire upon the Hessians?

3. Why does Jonathan try to understand the Hessians' words when he knows he doesn't speak their language?

4. In what way does the Corporal mislead the soldiers as they head off to battle?

5. Why does Jonathan hope the drum or fife player is younger than he?

6. What does Jonathan's identification with the word "soldier" (spoken in German by the Hessian) lead him to feel?

7. Why is Jonathan so eager to join the war effort in the beginning of the story?

8. How do Jonathan's feelings about fighting begin to be altered on the way to the battle as he hears the other soldiers talking?

9. How do the local men react to the Corporal at the beginning of the story?

10. How is the Corporal described at the beginning of the story?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Much of the text consists of the silent inner workings of Jonathan's mind as he tries to figure out his own beliefs and wonders about his fate. As he spends time with his Hessian captors, what effect does his relationship with them have on his changing thought process, specifically on his thoughts about war?

Essay Topic 2

What is the author's view of war? How does he use the murder of the child's parents to advance this view? What does the Corporal symbolize in regard to the author's view of war?

Essay Topic 3

What is the significance of the language barrier between Jonathan and the orphaned child? What other communication difficulties does this mirror? How would the plot have advanced differently if the boy had been able to tell Jonathan his story?

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