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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. Who preaches freedom at Palamas' funeral?

2. What effect does hearing the old tongue have on Jakob?

3. Who is Mones?

4. To what is Athos prone?

5. What does Athos teach Jakob to cook?

Short Essay Questions

1. What thoughts does Jakob have about the Catalan Atlas and history?

2. What is Biskupin and what happens to it?

3. How does Bella continue to impact Jakob's life?

4. What did Jakob Beer witness as he hid in the bog?

5. What is Jakob's reaction to reading Athos' letters?

6. How does Athos relate natural phenomenon to railroads and the Holocaust?

7. How does Athos cause Jakob to understand the power of poetry?

8. What incident does Ioannis relate, and of what does it remind Jakob?

9. What does Jakob think concerning the dead?

10. How does the relationship between Alex and Jakob evolve?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

There are a number of interesting questions raised by "Fugitive Pieces". Questions that Michaels 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 Michaels' agenda. Analyze that idea throughout the book and discuss Michaels' 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 Michaels and see if/where her life may have influenced her writing.

Essay Topic 2

Jakob offers the parable of a famed rabbi who travels incognito in shabby clothing and is ridiculed by passengers. When they find out who he is, they beg forgiveness, but he refuses, even on the Day of Awe, because they have wronged the man on the train, not himself. The moral: nothing erases an immoral act. When the victim is dead, only silence remains. Recorded history can be resurrected. Destruction turns presence into absence.

1. With research, explain what a parable is and why they might be used. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

2. Do you think it is true that nothing erases an immoral act? Why or why not? Use examples from your own life and the book to support your answer.

3. Discuss, in depth, what you think the following means: When the victim is dead, only silence remains. Recorded history can be resurrected. Destruction turns presence into absence. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in "Fugitive Pieces".

2. Trace and analyze one major theme of the book. How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

3. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of "Fugitive Pieces". How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

(see the answer keys)

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