View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. As the passengers are chanting in desperation, who does Josef see lingering in the doorway and smiling?

2. Who sews Ruthie's stuffed bunny back together before she can see it headless?

3. When Mahmoud and his family reach the border of Hungary, what are the Hungarian soldiers doing?

4. For whom does Josef tear his clothing in recognition of his own loss of the person?

5. The narrator remarks that despite the number of dead bodies Mahmoud has seen, the experience of "seeing death" (180) never stops being what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Isabel not want to look at the face of her dead best friend Ivan?

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

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

4. How does Josef's mother's plan for getting a sleeping potion for her husband Aaron go awry?

5. What is the reason given for the firemen on the ship engaging in bad behavior while the ship is docked in Cuba and what are they said to be doing?

6. 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?

7. What is Josef's mother's plan for procuring a sleeping potion to help calm her husband Aaron down?

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

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

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

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 instances of irony within the novel's narrative and analyze the author's purpose for including each instance you discuss.

Essay Topic 3

Look carefully at the passages of the novel that describe the close relationship between Mahmoud and Waleed. What is the author's purpose for discussing at length the nature of these two siblings' connection?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,108 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample