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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 Mahmoud do to honor his deceased fellow passenger when he takes the man's life jacket and buries him at sea?

2. When Josef's father disappears from the family's cabin in Josef's absence, where does he turn out to have gone?

3. What action does Waleed take throughout the entire robbery by the taxi driver, causing Mahmoud to worry about his emotional well-being?

4. Who appears next to Josef's ship and manages to convince authorities to release his two daughters from the ship?

5. Why is Lito alarmed when a passenger shoots at the sharks in the water with his pistol?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens to Mahmoud's family on the way from Belgrade to the Hungarian border?

2. For what reason does Dr. Aber, the father of Renata and Evelyne, tell the girls to disembark from the ship without bringing any of their belongings?

3. What details does Isabel remember about her grandmother Lita's death?

4. What about Waleed's reaction to being held at gunpoint worries Mahmoud about his brother even more than before?

5. How are the roles of father and son reversed within the scene when Schiendick leaves Josef and his family alone in their cabin after tormenting them?

6. What plans for his life in Florida does Señor Castillo reveal to the remaining passengers in the boat after Ivan's death?

7. What does Isabel mean when she thinks that "Fidel Castro has Ivan's blood all over him" (224)?

8. On the second day of Isabel's journey, it is said that it seems to Isabel and Ivan that everyone has a job but the two of them. What jobs are being handled by the others?

9. How does Mahmoud save his infant sister Hana from drowning after the family's dinghy bursts upon the rocks?

10. What reason is given for why Isabel has never been to church?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the topic of revolution treated within the novel and how does its treatment relate to the book's depicted eras?

Discuss the author's messages about guilt and responsibility within the novel Refugee.

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

Choose three major symbols within the narrative and discuss in an essay the connections between these three symbols and three major themes present within the novel.

(see the answer keys)

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