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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 does Michael leave for Hanna when they are in Amorbach?

2. How does the narrator describe being ill in the beginning of Chapter 5?

3. What does Hanna not want to acknowledge that she had previously admitted to the court?

4. In Chapter 14, what animal does Michael tell Hanna she looks like?

5. By what name is one of the guards known in the survivor's book?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Hanna's lawyer from Part 2, Chapter 3.

2. Describe Michael's feelings about his last years in school and his first years in university, as he relates them in Part 2, Chapter 1.

3. How does Michael justify thinking of Hanna as a horse in Chapter 14?

4. Describe Michael's daydreams from Chapter 13.

5. How does Michael "betray" Hanna, as he explains in Chapter 15?

6. What does Michael do in the weeks after he and Hanna have their first fight?

7. Describe the building on Bahnhofstrasse.

8. Why is the narrator unable to take his eyes off of Frau Schmitz?

9. What does Michael do while staying home alone during the last week of vacation, in Chapter 12?

10. Describe Michael's classroom and classmates as they are presented in Chapter 13.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the last chapter of the novel Michael talks about freeing himself from the story of he and Hanna. How has Michael's guilt changed from the initial stages of their relationship to after Hanna's death? How might writing their story free Michael from that guilt? Can he ever be free? Why or why not? How does Michael "make peace" with their story?

Essay Topic 2

In the early chapters of the novel, Michael describes the setting--Hanna's apartment, the city, the streetcars--in great detail. How do Michael's detailed descriptions give the reader clues to his character? How do details about the scenery advance the plot of the novel?

Essay Topic 3

During the trials it is discovered that Hanna had "favorite" prisoners, young women who were too weak to work, whom she had read to her much like Michael. What can the reader draw from this discovery? How does Michael feel about this? How could this revelation change the way in which the reader sees Hanna?

(see the answer keys)

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