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. In what do Sarah and Immaculee travel to Mataba with Colonel Gueye?

2. What are the first three words Immaculee says to Felicien?

3. What notable item does Immaculee find in a house nearby Aloise's?

4. What does Immaculee say littered the streets in Kigali?

5. What is the profession of Dr. Abel, whom Immaculee encounters on the streets of Kigali?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Immaculee see after her dream, as related in "Keeping the Faith," and what does she take it to mean?

2. For what reason does Immaculee believe the French would not slaughter the Tutsi people as the Hutu think they would?

3. What does Immaculee find those in her town lacking that she had maintained when she visits home to put her mother's and brother's bodies to rest?

4. What prevents Damascene from staying with good friends who would have hidden him and helped him to escape the country, leading to his death, as is recounted in "A Letter from Damascene"?

5. For what does the pastor ask the women to pray with him and why?

6. Why do the Hutu think that the French coming to Rwanda would be a boon to their genocidal efforts?

7. What do Major Ntwali do for Immaculee and her friends in "On to Kigali"?

8. What does Immaculee hope her words can do for survivors of holocausts and for those subject to violence everywhere?

9. What characterizes Immaculee and Aimable's relationship with one another after the events of the genocide?

10. What international efforts are described in "A Gathering of Orphans" about the Rwandan massacres?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Humble, pious, loving--what other words could be used to describe Immaculee Ilibagiza? Drawing upon instances from the text, as well as the message she promotes within it, analyze the moral character and personality of Immaculee. What are her strengths as a person? What particular actions show her strengths? How does she develop these strengths during her experiences in the Rwandan holocaust? In what ways is she weak, and how is that shown in the text? What are her principal character traits? What struggles has she faced in her life? How has she overcome these struggles? How does the message she promotes in Left to Tell corroborate her life experiences? What is demonstrated about her character through the relationships she built with other people?

Essay Topic 2

The group upon whose doorstop most of the blame for the actual killings during the genocide has been laid is the Interahamwe. Analyze the culpability of the group, as well as its essence, in a carefully written analytical essay. Who are the Interahamwe? What sort of people comprise the Interahamwe? What characterizes these people? In what sort of actions and pleasures do they indulge? What is their relationship to reasonable proceedings? What does this indicate about the essence of the Interahamwe? In what way does this mitigate their culpability? How is this yet far from absolving the members of the Interahamwe?

Essay Topic 3

In the moment of his greatest compassion, Pastor Murinzi, speaking to his children and pointing to the Tutsi women he has been hiding in his bathroom for over 90 days, tells them that "There but for the grace of God go any one of you." Analyze the significance of this statement in the context of the Rwandan genocide. What does the Pastor mean? How could the same thing have happened to any of his children? What does this statement reveal about the moral character of the pastor? What does it demonstrate about the pastor's understanding of the genocide? What does it show about the nature of genocide in general? What does it illuminate concerning the dignity of human life?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,039 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample