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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. How does Frank feel about Ruth's sudden departure from the family home?

2. What is the only emotion Jake seems to exhibit following the news that Ariel is dead?

3. What happens to foil Frank's plan to find out what happens during the conversation between Ruth and Nathan?

4. How does the whole town find out about Karl's secret he divulges to Nathan?

5. Who is the only family member present when the sheriff and his people pull Ariel's dead body from the river?

Short Essay Questions

1. When the sheriff finally notices Frank standing in the doorway after the questioning, what idea does he provide that gives Ruth hope?

2. What is the significance of how Frank spends the money he has been saving up from the yard work he does for his grandfather?

3. What is the first action Frank takes when he gets home as a result of listening to Nathan's sermon?

4. Why is it ironic that Ruth refuses to attend the New Bremen church service at which Nathan preaches right after Ariel's dead body is found?

5. What revelations does the sheriff communicate to Nathan when they meet in Nathan's office at the church and who becomes a suspect as a result of these revelations?

6. What elements of family life at the Drums' home drive Ruth to leave the family to stay elsewhere for a while?

7. Who acts as the go-between, bringing news back and forth between the police station and the Drum family and how does this role fit the character's relationship to the family?

8. Why and how does Ruth lose the one person who has served as her comfort throughout the tragedy surrounding Ariel?

9. Besides the sheriff's mention of Morris Engdahl, what happens to prompt Frank to tell the sheriff about Morris Engdahl's dislike of Ariel?

10. In what ways are the complicated nature of the grief cycle demonstrated to the reader through the experiences of Frank and Jake?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the novel's characters have war experiences in their pasts that significantly affect their futures. Choose three of these characters, analyze their relationships to war experiences, and state and prove the author's message about the nature of war.

Essay Topic 2

Krueger chooses to leave some mysteries in the novel unsolved for the reader, including Karl Brandt's death and Bobby Cole's death. Analyze the ambiguities within these two incidents and use your analysis to state the author's purpose in leaving some of the novel's mysteries unsolved.

Essay Topic 3

Within the epilogue, Frank states there "there is no such thing as a true event" (306). What does he mean and how do these words fit into the context of the novel's overarching themes?

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