2. When Josef's ship's engines roar to life for the first time since arriving in a Cuban harbor, where do the passengers believe the ship will be going next?

3. Who suggests that two of the boat's passengers get into the water and hang onto the boat in order to reduce the risk of capsizing?

4. After whom is Josef named?

5. To whom does Mahmoud give the deceased man's life jacket?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What reaction do the other passengers of the MS St. Louis have to Renata and Evelyne being allowed to leave the ship to join their father?

3. When Isabel realizes that each part of the journey has been like the verse of a song, what results does she come up with when thinking of the various verses the song would include?

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

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

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. 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?

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

9. 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?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sensory details are used frequently by the author in order to create vivid pictures of each major character's journey and progression through the narrative. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used by the author set a particular mood for each of the three scenes.