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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 the narrator describe the feeling he gets from his father regarding their family?

2. What does Michael find in the beginning of Chapter 17?

3. Why does Michael see Hanna in this place?

4. What do the other defendants claim after Hanna's admission?

5. What decision does Michael make at the beginning of Part 2, Chapter 12?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the building on Bahnhofstrasse.

2. At the end of Chapter 11, what are the comparisons Michael makes to his predicament with the trial?

3. Describe the lines of reasoning the defendants (including Hanna) give for not unlocking the church doors, as explained in Chapter 9.

4. What does Michael do, in Chapter 17, when he realizes Hanna has disappeared?

5. Describe how Michael becomes involved in the court and Hanna's trial, as it is told in Part 2, Chapter 2.

6. Describe Michael's daydreams from Chapter 13.

7. Describe the only time Michael sees Hanna by chance, in Chapter 16.

8. In Part 2, Chapter 4, how does Michael compare the trial to being a prisoner in a death camp?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Part 1, Chapter 5 Michael says that he recognizes a life pattern in himself, and that "often enough in my life I have done things I had not decided to do." What does Michael mean by this? Describe and give examples of the disconnect Michael feels between making a decision and completing an action. How does this act as a foreshadowing of Michael's later behavior?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

In Part 2, Chapter 14, Michael has an exchange with a man who gives him a ride to the concentration camp. How does their conversation illustrate the disconnect between Michael's generation and that of his elders? How are their opinions about the war and justice similar, and how do they differ?

(see the answer keys)

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