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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. For how much do Asher's small paintings sell?

2. Jacob Kahn takes Asher to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at various paintings of which subject?

3. Where does Asher want to go after graduating?

4. When Asher falls asleep in class, the teacher makes fun of him by calling him which name?

5. What city does Jacob Kahn describe as a "gift"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the Rebbe want Asher to study Russian?

2. Describe how Anna Schaeffer looks.

3. Describe how Jacob Kahn looks in Chapter 14.

4. What does Aryeh look like in Chapter 12, after Rivkeh has spent several years with him in Europe?

5. What does Jacob Kahn say about the first painting Asher creates of his enemy classmate?

6. What objects does Asher notice in his parents' bedroom?

7. Describe the Brooklyn Crucifixions.

8. What is the illness that forces Jacob Kahn into bed for a few days?

9. Describe the sculpture that Jacob Kahn specifically keeps for himself in Chapter 11, purportedly at his wife's request.

10. Which four people from the Bible does the Pieta portray?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do you think that Asher's decision to become an artist is something he could have escaped, if he had wished? Do you think that his decision causes him to lead a more fulfilled or a less fulfilled life?

Essay Topic 2

Aryeh Lev risks his health and at times his life to help bring Russian Jews to safety, even though Rivkeh and Asher worry about him intensely. Do you think Aryeh makes a wise decision to travel abroad for the Rebbe, or do you think he would have been wiser to stay in Brooklyn? Write your idea of what might have happened if Aryeh had stayed in Brooklyn during Asher's artistically formative years.

Essay Topic 3

"Vocation" is a word that describes one's choice of career as a way to fulfill one's personhood. This novel heavily emphasizes vocation as a way to follow God. Compare and contrast Aryeh's choice to travel for the Rebbe with Asher's choice to become an artist. Do you think they choose appropriate vocations to express who they are on the inside? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 668 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample