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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 Klara tell her lover one day?

2. What is the outcome of Oma's illness?

3. How does Siegfried die?

4. What is Siegfried Tegern's occupation?

5. Where does Siegfried live?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Trudi's mother dropping her supposedly affect her?

2. What do the townspeople say is the source of Trudi's dwarfism?

3. What is Hanna's mother told by the nuns when she goes to the convent, and what is the mother's response?

4. When does Hanna's mother most like to swim?

5. Why does Oma go back to the hospital one day?

6. What does Hanna notice about Matthias after he receives a regular visitor and what does she say to Matthias about her observation?

7. What do many people believe is the cause of Trudi becoming an old maid?

8. Describe the narrator of these stories.

9. How does Hanna's mother get Hanna involved in swimming?

10. What does Hanna learn from Trudi about her father?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rolf confronts Hanna about the joke. Hanna becomes angry and tells him that his father abandoned him because he did not want him. Rolf has never been told the truth about his father, therefore he is deeply upset by Hanna's words. When Rolf does not return home that night, a search is organized. The following morning Hanna finds Rolf near the river. Hanna tells him all she knows about his American soldier father. Rolf sends Hanna to learn more. Finally Rolf agrees to go home.

1. From the information given on Hanna's pranks, do you think she carried pranks too far? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think Hanna was wrong for telling Rolf about his father? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Discuss the ways in which Rolf's knowledge of his father might change his life. Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Floating in My Mother's Palm belongs to the general fiction genre. Discuss the following:

1. Define the literary term "genre" and give several examples of three other genres in addition to the general fiction genre.

2. Discuss two reasons why it might be useful to label a text by genre and two reasons it might be disadvantageous to label a text by genre.

3. What do you think is the difference between a general fiction novel and a mystery?

Essay Topic 3

There are a number of interesting questions raised by Floating in My Mother's Palm. Questions that Hegi most likely want readers to consider and think through carefully. Discuss the following:

1. What does the term "author agenda" mean?

2. Name one idea/concept you think may have been a part of the Hegi's agenda. Analyze that idea throughout the book and discuss Hegi's probable agenda concerning that idea.

2. Do you think writers who have an agenda for writing should point it out in a preface?

3. How often do you think fiction is written with a clear agenda in mind by the author?

4. Research the life of Hegi and see if/where her life may have influenced her writing.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 945 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample