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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. Who delivers Ernie to his family?

2. What does Mordecai tell Ernie he will eventually begin to do as a Just Man?

3. What is Ernie first in at his school?

4. What occupation does Mordecai Levy take up after harvesting potatoes?

5. What did Jews have to do to save their lives in York in 1185?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Judith recognize Mordecai as a Just Man?

2. What does Ernie's act of stepping forward to protest the treatment of Frau Tuszynski cause Mordecai to do?

3. What qualities of character does Brother Beast possess?

4. Why does Judith blame herself for the death of three of her sons?

5. What does Ernie do to ease the emptiness in his heart after the beating?

6. Why does Yankel, the Galician, advise Benjamin to get out of Berlin?

7. Why did others regard Mordecai as a fallen Levy?

8. Why do Mordecai and Judith decide that Benjamin is like a mosquito?

9. What does Ernie have in common with the German boy he meets when he runs away from home?

10. What does Ernie think as he is surrounded by the Pimpfe bullies?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The position of a Just Man in the world is complex, and it takes the child Ernie some time to understand what he is supposed to do on behalf of his fellow man. Using explanations given by Mordecai and others, as well as actions by the Just Men, explain in your essay what they do for humanity.

Essay Topic 2

The author puts himself into the story more than once. In your essay, find the moments in which the author shares his own feelings with the reader, and evaluate this device. Does he belong in the story? Why or why not? Is he sharing his feelings because they are similar to yours? What ultimately gives him relief from the grief he experiences as he composes this story?

Essay Topic 3

The setting of this story is very specific, yet nothing is mentioned in this story of the rationale for hatred and mistreatment of the Jews in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. What reasoning enabled Germans and others to believe that Jews should properly be exported or exterminated? Using Internet research for your essay, explain the societal elements that allowed such an idea as the Final Solution to come into existence in an educated, civilized society.

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