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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. How many Jews were deported from Vel d'Hiv' in July 1942?

2. How does the narrator describe how people felt about the girl's family?

3. What is Mame Tézac suffering?

4. How did the restrictions affect the girl?

5. Why is the girl angry with her father?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What kind of writing does Julia do?

4. What do the girl and her mother take with them when they leave their home?

5. What does the girl do when the girls are separated from their mothers?

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

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

8. Describe the girl's escape with Rachel.

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are the traits that distinguish characters like Gaspard DuFaure, William Rainsferd and Julia Jaramond from the others? How do these characters typically get along with the others? What allows them to take things seriously that the other characters do not want to talk about?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

What kind of money does Julia Jaramond have, that she can afford so much travel in search of a dead person's stories? How does her wealth compare or contrast with the lower-class families who were rounded up at Vel d'Hiv'? Money is not mentioned explicitly in the novel, but how does it form an aspect of the historical context of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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