View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Vladek say his father escaped from Russian military service?

2. Why does Vladek say his position as a Jew in Poland is less secure than his position as a prisoner of war?

3. How does Artie's father surprise Anja on their first date?

4. When did Vladek first serve in the army?

5. What problem does Vladek have with his eyes?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Artie’s father characterize himself in the time before he met Anja?

2. What tasks are Vladek and his companions given at the work assignment?

3. Describe Vladek’s dream and its meaning.

4. Describe the partition of Poland under the Nazis.

5. In Chapter 1, how does Artie characterize his relationship with his father?

6. What doubts does Vladek have about Artie’s comic book idea?

7. What happens to Vladek and Anja in 1939?

8. Describe Vladek’s experience during battle.

9. What doubts does Vladek have about Anja before he marries her?

10. What two worlds are juxtaposed in the opening scene?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

During the Holocaust, the Germans described the Jews as rats, a pestilence in civilized cities. What explains Art Spiegelman’s depiction of Jews as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs? What is the effect of this characterization?

Essay Topic 2

Identify the most important plot points in Maus. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the importance of Artie's father and Artie's mother in Maus. How are they each important, and what is the difference between their importance in Artie’s eyes?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 869 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample