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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 often makes Athos feel depressed?

2. Who is Helen?

3. What happens in 1968, which is the opening to Book I?

4. Where does Jakob sit when Athos goes to town?

5. What do Athos' stories evoke in Jakob?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Athos do and say before he and Jakob leave for Canada?

2. Who is Athos and what does he pass on to Jakob?

3. Why do Athos and Jakob go to Athens and in what condition is Greece?

4. How does Jakob end up in Greece?

5. Describe the day-to-day life of Jakob and Athos.

6. How does Kostas describe the various occupations?

7. Why do Athos and Jakob identify with explorers of Antarctica?

8. Describe Alex.

9. How does Jakob learn English, and of what is he proud as he is mastering the language?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

History and memory share time and space and every moment is really two moments. Examples are how the Nazis and the Lublin scholars view the destruction of holy books, how Nazis and mothers in Lódz react to the soldiers "catching" infants on their bayonets, and how a woman in Birkenau carries a photograph of her husband and daughter under her tongue in order not to be separated from them. Jakob cannot resist reading the horrors of history because he needs to know where Bella actually dies.

1. Explain your ideas as to why history and memory might be two different moments. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

2. Explain the type of internal change must occur in a soldier in order for a decent or ordinary person to become the type of individual who would toss an infant on his bayonet. Include what people in society today might learn from such a transformation. Use examples from your own life and the text to support your answer.

3. Explain, in depth, how Jakob reading of the Holocaust horrors is related to Jakob not knowing what happened to his sister. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

1. What is foreshadowing? How many incidences of foreshadowing are in "Fugitive Pieces"? How does foreshadowing contribute to a book's suspense?

2. Discuss an example of foreshadow in "Fugitive Pieces" including why you believe it is foreshadow. Include examples from the book and your own life to illustrate your answer.

3. How do you think most people react to uncertainty in their lives? Use examples from "Fugitive Pieces" and your own live to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 3

Characters are an integral and important part of almost all novels. Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast the characters of Athos and Jakob. How are they similar? How are they different? Is there a flaw in each of their personalities? Be specific and give examples.

2. Compare/contrast the characters of Ben and Jakob. How do they seem different? Which do you like more? Why? Which one seems more of a well-rounded character?

3. Compare/contrast the characters of Michaela and Naomi. How do they seem different? Which do you like more? Why? Which one seems more of a well-rounded character?

4. Thoroughly analyze how three of the secondary characters in Fugitive Pieces help drive the plot and what their contribution is to the storyline. Are any of the secondary characters unnecessary? Indispensable? Which of the secondary characters are likable? Which are either unlikable or even despicable? Be specific and give examples.

(see the answer keys)

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