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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 is the first article of clothing Frau Schmitz puts on to get ready to leave the apartment in Chapter 4?

2. What do Hanna and Michael do for his Easter vacation?

3. What is unusual about Michael's father's relationship with his children?

4. During what month does the narrator get ill on the street?

5. According to the daughter, how could the prisoners have saved themselves?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Michael decide to talk to his father in Chapter 12?

2. As described in Chapter 10, where is Michael when he has an epiphany about Hanna? What is the epiphany, and how does Michael realize it?

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

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

5. Describe the encounter between Frau Schmitz and the narrator in Chapter 6.

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

7. Describe the bicycle trip that Michael and Hanna take during Michael's Easter vacation.

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Michael's family makes brief appearances in the novel. At the end of Part 1, Chapter 7, Michael notes that he feels as though he is saying his "final goodbyes" to them, although no one is going anywhere. Why might Michael have said that? What does his family symbolize? What, perhaps, were the author's intentions of having a young, teenaged Michael so emotionally estranged from his family?

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

In Part 1, Chapter 9, Michael asks "Why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths?" What does this foreshadow? Do you agree with Michael that happiness about something cannot be regained if the memory ends in unhappiness? Why or why not? How does this question relate to the novel as a whole?

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