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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. Who takes Josef and the other children on a tour of the ship?

2. On what condition is Josef's father released?

3. Then narrator describes the fast-approaching tanker heading toward Isabel's boat as eventually getting so loud that it sounds like a what?

4. Isabel knows that Ivan and his father are actually building a boat in order to travel where?

5. What is Josef's father's profession at the start of the novel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the clave?

2. What are the only items that Isabel and the other passengers on the tiny boat have room to bring with them on the journey to Florida from Cuba?

3. List some of Isabel's and the other boat passengers' expectations of what life will be like in America.

4. Why do Josef and the other kids on the ship tour become uneasy when they hear some members of the crew singing "The Horst Wessel Song" (95)?

5. How is Isabel's kitten used by the author to send a message about hunger and fear?

6. What is the author's purpose for characterizing the Nazis terrorizing Josef's family as "shadows"? (1)

7. What is ironic about Josef's feelings following his bar mitzvah?

8. Why does Mahmoud's family choose Germany as a place to run to when they leave Syria?

9. What event is just about to happen when the motor of Isabel's family's boat splutters and dies?

10. How is the the ship Josef's family boards shown by the author to be paradoxical?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do the themes of deception and secrecy function within the novel and what is the author's message regarding these themes?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's use of literary devices such as metaphor, simile, and personification. How are literary devices used by the author in order to support and underscore particular themes and messages within the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the novel Refugee from an Existential perspective. What elements of life does it suggest hold the most meaning and why?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,103 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample