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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. Where do the girl and Rachel go from Beaune-la-Rolande?

2. What do the girl and Rachel take with them from Beaune-la-Rolande?

3. What is stamped on the family's identity cards?

4. What do the police tell the people?

5. What does Bertrand tell Julia when she becomes upset about his mother's apartment?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are the girl and her mother treated as they leave the apartment building?

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

3. What happens when the girl and her parents arrive at Beaune-la-Rolande?

4. How does the narrator say the girl and her mother react differently to the conditions at Beaune-la-Rolande?

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

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

7. When and where does "Sarah's Key" take place?

8. What are conditions like at the location where the buses take the girl and her mother?

9. What do the yellow stars signify?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Julia Jaramond is an American who has spent twenty-five years in France, and Sarah Starzynski is a Polish Jew living in Paris. Describe the importance, in "Sarah's Key", of nationality and home. Who feels 'at home' and how are these characters different from characters who have a different relationship with place?

Essay Topic 2

Map out the two stories developed in "Sarah's Key", the Sarah story and the Julia story. Where do they depart, where do they overlap, where do they separate? Describe the problems and challenges associated with choosing a visual form for describing the novel.

Essay Topic 3

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?

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This section contains 864 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample