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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. Where is the first place Jonathan and the Hessians stop?

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

3. What does Jonathan notice about the enemy officer on the horse as he gets closer?

4. What is Jonathan's father's attitude toward Jonathan going to war?

5. What happens to Jonathan immediately following the battle with the Hessians?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Jonathan try to escape from his captors?

2. What mixed message does the tavern keeper send Jonathan?

3. Why is Jonathan's father against Jonathan joining the war effort?

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

5. Why does the youngest Hessian seem safer and more trustworthy to Jonathan than the other two?

6. Why doesn't Jonathan call out when he thinks he sees the Corporal while he is with the Hessians?

7. Why does Jonathan lie to the tavern keeper about having permission from his father to fight?

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

9. In what way are Jonathan's feelings about the Corporal different than those of the other soldiers?

10. What does it reveal about the soldiers when one of them shoots into the air as a joke?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In what ways is this book a coming-of-age story? What are the major events that cause Jonathan to change from a child to an adult, and how do these changes manifest in him? How is he different before and after his experiences as a soldier?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Jonathan's father neglect to share his own experiences with and concerns about war with Jonathan, both before and after Jonathan goes to fight? In what ways might his father's silence be a contributing factor in Jonathan's strong desire to go to war? How might Jonathan's outlook and actions be different if his father had been more open with him?

Essay Topic 3

What does the author accomplish by having the Hessians use a language that Jonathan cannot understand, but the reader can? How would the scene in which Jonathan is first taken prisoner be altered if Jonathan understood what his captors were saying? What impact would this have on the reader's experience?

(see the answer keys)

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