View a FREE sample

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 do with the gun he retrieves from the house?

2. What question does the Corporal ask Jonathan when he awakens him?

3. What does Jonathan tell the Hessians to do in response to the Corporal's shouts?

4. What does the old Hessian do to Jonathan in response to Jonathan's advice about the soldiers outside?

5. What does Jonathan find interesting about the Corporal's yelling at the Hessians?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Jonathan choosing to carry the boy and leave the gun in the house?

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

3. Why does Jonathan risk his life and the boy's by bringing the boy to the Hessians?

4. In what way does Jonathan begin to see the Corporal differently when the man wakes him up at the campfire?

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

6. What does the Corporal's reaction to Jonathan and the boy's appearance at the campfire reveal about his character?

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

8. What event causes Jonathan to reassess whether the Hessians are his friends or his enemies as he milks the cow?

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

10. How do the Hessians treat Jonathan when he is trying to save their lives?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How has the young child's experiences mirrored Jonathan's own experiences of war? In particular, how have they both been changed by the horrors they have seen? What does this have to do with Jonathan's decision to protect the child at any cost?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 788 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample