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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 does Mordecai determine to teach Ernie while Ernie is still young?

2. What is Mordecai's pet name for Judith?

3. What does Mordecai Levy have to do to keep his potato harvesting job?

4. What is Ernie first in at his school?

5. How does Benjamin defend the apostate who returns to Judaism?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What causes Ernie to feel hatred for the first time?

3. What rationale does Rabbi Yom Tov Levy offer for the mass murder and suicide he instigates?

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

5. Why does Herr Geek see the Jews as a threat to Germany?

6. How is Benjamin received by the Jews in Stillenstadt?

7. How does Mordecai answer the question of why the Just Man dies in bed, rather than in martyrdom?

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

9. What things does Mordecai believe to be incomprehensible?

10. What does Herr Kremer mean when he says the child is descended from the man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Authors write for many purposes such as to entertain, to inform, to persuade, or some combination of these. In your essay, explain which purpose you believe motivated Schwarz-Bart to write this story. Use specific examples from the book itself to substantiate your opinion.

Essay Topic 2

A great deal of this story revolves around Ernie's development as a child. In your essay, tell which of Ernie's recorded childhood events changed the man he was to become, and why you think so.

Essay Topic 3

Schwarz-Bart includes a number of characters who represent wide segments of society in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. In your essay, select two or three characters such as the nurse in the infirmary, the farmer's wife, the young Galician, or Herr Geek and explain what purpose they serve in presenting the reader with a panoramic viewpoint of the culture at that time.

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This section contains 777 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample