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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 is the girl's mother's reaction to this?

2. Where do the police believe the boy is?

3. What do the police tell the people?

4. What does the girl do to her brother?

5. What is Bertrand's attitude toward Julia?

Short Essay Questions

1. What kind of writing does Julia do?

2. What is the opening scene of "Sarah's Key".

3. What do the yellow stars signify?

4. Describe the girl and her parents' departure for Beaune-la-Rolande.

5. What lead does Julia get for gathering more information about Vel d'Hiv' during her trip there?

6. Describe Julia Jaramond's relationship with her husband.

7. How does the narrator describe the site of Vel d'Hiv'?

8. How does it happen that two members of the family do not go with the police?

9. What does Mame Tézac have to do with the events of the Vel d'Hiv' roundup?

10. How does the narrator characterize Julia and Zoe?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an evaluative review of "Sarah's Key". What is this book's place in culture? What are its uses? Who is its audience? What are its limitations?

Essay Topic 2

Julia is dismayed by the ignorance surrounding Drancy and Vel d'Hiv', and she finds small plaques commemorating what took place there, but mostly she finds that people have moved on, and either do not remember or do not care about the past. What do you think is an appropriate form of memorializing the events of the roundup and the Holocaust? When is it appropriate for a place to 'move on' and when is it appropriate that should time remain stopped at the moment of the atrocities?

Essay Topic 3

What is the significance of Bertrand's mid-life crisis? Is it a convenient mechanism for removing him from Julia's live, to make room for William Rainsferd, or is it a metaphor for the inability to arrive at a mature acceptance of life's painful complexities?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 843 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample