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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 the legend say would happen to the world if one of the Just Men were lacking?

2. What did Yankel, the young Galician, do to his fellow villagers?

3. What does Ilse Bruckner do for Ernie?

4. What are Jews called in Herr Kremer's school?

5. According to Mordecai, what does the death of a Just Man change in the order of the world?

Short Essay Questions

1. What solution does Moritz think would relieve the Jews of the danger involved in going to the synagogue.

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

3. What does Ernie think when he feels no pain from the bumps and gashes he has suffered?

4. Why does Judith object to Mordecai telling stories to Ernie?

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

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

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

8. Why is Jacob not consoled when Ernie promises to "spring" at the Hitler Youth if they bother the little boy?

9. How does the child Ernie come to feel that he is in charge of those around him?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

This author dedicates many pages of his story to dream sequences. For your essay, select one of the major dreams that Ernie has and interpret the dream, its relation to his waking life, and the author's possible purpose for including the dream in the story.

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

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.

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