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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 decide to do with his own gun before leaving the house while the Hessians are asleep?

2. Where does Jonathan find the child?

3. How does the young Hessian appear to Jonathan in the light of the burning stick at night?

4. How long is it after Jonathan leaves the house at night that he sees a light?

5. What is Jonathan's notion about the inhabitants of the house he and the Hessians find?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Jonathan think he sees himself from the day before when he returns home?

2. What connection does Jonathan make between the death of his father's friend in battle and the death of the boy's parents at the hands of the Corporal?

3. Why is the task of milking the cow so comforting to Jonathan?

4. Why is the Corporal being kind to Jonathan after he wakes him up?

5. By using a language that the Hessians do not understand, does the Corporal really give them a chance to save their lives when he tells them to surrender?

6. How do the reactions of the men differ from those of the Corporal when Jonathan appears at the campfire?

7. Why does Jonathan feel a sense of comaraderie with his enemy captor, just because he winks at him?

8. Why does Jonathan have confusing reactions to the men's assessment at the campfire of the result of the battle?

9. When one of the soldiers urges Jonathan toward the house where the Hessians are sleeping, reassuring him that nothing will happen to him, what does this reveal about how Jonathan's experience has made him different from the other men?

10. What is the significance of Jonathan smashing the borrowed gun to pieces in a fit of rage?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Trace Jonathan's thoughts, feelings and reactions toward the Corporal throughout the book. At what points does Jonathan trust him, and at what points does he exhibit doubt and uncertainty? What part does the Corporal play in Jonathan's ultimate character shift at the end of the book?

Essay Topic 2

Do the men's initial reactions to fighting Hessians rather than Redcoats foreshadow Jonathan's later experiences with Hessians, or do his experiences as their prisoner reveal another side of them in Jonathan's perception? What do the Hessians represent to the men, and what do they later come to represent for Jonathan?

Essay Topic 3

Name at least two points in the story when Jonathan finds it difficult to see because some type of fog (natural or manufactured) is clouding the air. What does this fog symbolize in terms of the realities of war and Jonathan's discoveries about it?

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