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. Where is Friedrich?

2. Where is Friedrich?

3. Who helps the rabbi thread a needle?

4. Why does Friedrich leave his apartment?

5. Who do they hear climbing the stairs to the upstairs apartment?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the narrator's ethical dilemma concerning this situation?

2. What do you think Resch means when he says, "his luck that he died this way"?

3. What does Friedrich's appearance suggest?

4. How does Friedrich's family celebrate his Bar Mitzvah?

5. Why do you think Friedrich would want to go see a movie that espouses hatred toward Jews?

6. What is ironic about the prayer that Scholoime is reciting at his death?

7. Describe the Jewish death ritual.

8. How are these chants a perversion of Jewish historical events?

9. What is ironic about the way Resch treats his garden polycarp in contrast to how he treats Friedrich?

10. Why are Friedrich and his father having uncharacteristic arguments, and why is there tension in the apartment when the narrator goes up to take the Schneiders some potatoes?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the chapter "Friday Evening," the narrator shares the Sabbath dinner with Friedrich's family. Choose one of the following questions in a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. The Friday evening Sabbath service is a rite or ceremony within the Jewish faith. Many other religions have rites and ceremonies also. Identify several rites/ceremonies either religious or secular and explain the reason for each.

2. What is the purpose of rites or ceremonies? Are they necessary for human culture? For individuals?

3. Some say that part of the reason the modern culture is declining is a lack of tradition, which would include rites and ceremonies. Take a stand either to affirm or refute this idea using specific examples.

Essay Topic 2

In the chapter titled "The Swimming Pool," Friedrich returns to the pool, offering to tell the police about the thief, but is rebuffed. Answer the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What happens to Friedrich while he is checking out from a day at the pool? What do you think is the reason for the attendant's vitriolic response to learning Friedrich is a Jew?

2. Why do you think Friedrich would be so careless about his claim check given the things that are going on around him and the fact that his id clearly shows he is Jewish?

3. Why do you think Friedrich returns to try to help the boy whose bike is stolen?

4. Would you have returned to try to help the police and boy recover the bike? If it were your bike, would you want useful information even if it were from someone you disliked?

Essay Topic 3

The chapter titled "Jungvolk" is very significant in that if the young can be influenced and changed, significant social changes can take place in a country almost overnight. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Once Hitler has the young people "in his pocket," he is well on his way to controlling Germany. Write an essay either agreeing or disagreeing with this statement, giving specific reasons and examples.

2. Not too long ago in the United States, President Obama addressed the youth in the schools in the nation as a whole. Discuss this situation, why some people were opposed to President Obama doing so, and any similarities between the novel, Friedrich, and that situation.

3. Bob Dylan wrote and released a song around 1963 titled, "The Times They Are a-Changin'." How are the lyrics to this song applicable to what is happening in 1930s Germany?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,259 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample