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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. In what location does Josef's mother spend all her time on the ship since leaving Cuba?

2. When it gets too dark to navigate, what strategy does Isabel advocate for?

3. What does Officer Padron do when the passengers of Josef's ship rush the ship ladder?

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

5. What does Isabel do just before Ivan's body is buried at sea?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What change occurs in Josef's mother's personality once the MS St. Louis leaves Cuba?

4. 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?

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. Though the narrator states that a few of the refugees Mahmoud sees when boarding the dinghy have backpacks or plastic bags, how are most of the refugees carrying their belongings?

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

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

9. For what reasons does Lito take on the role of leading Ivan's funeral ceremony?

10. 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?

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

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

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how and why the author instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of Alan Gratz's Refugee.

(see the answer keys)

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