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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 is a brioche?

2. What lifesaving device was distributed to all workmen except Jews?

3. What is in the bridal chamber when Ernie and Golda first enter in Ernie's dream?

4. What does the farmer's wife find out that changes her attitude toward Ernie?

5. What happens to hundreds of German Jewish boys in 1934?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Ernie describe Jesus?

2. Why did the colored identity cards give the Jews a false sense of security?

3. In Ernie's dream, what mistake does Judith make as she talks about the wedding?

4. Why does the French army captain think that Ernie should not be allowed to continue as a soldier?

5. Why are the old men of The Association of Zemyock surprised that Ernie has returned to them?

6. Why do the SS men torture Ernie for his request to enter the camp at Drancy?

7. What does the author find "admirable" about German education during the years before the Final Solution of Jewish extermination?

8. What does Ernie do to turn himself into a dog?

9. Why does Mordecai say it would be useless to leave Germany?

10. What surprising request does Ernie make of the gendarmes at Drancy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

There are moments in this story when Ernie is happy. In your essay, identify and explain the moments that cause him to briefly experience happiness. Do they make his life better or worse? Why do you think so?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay exploring the character and personality of Ernie. What motivates him as a child? As an adult? What does he want to do? Does he believe himself to be a Just Man? The author talks of the first death of Ernie. Are there more than one? More than two? Use specific examples from the story.

(see the answer keys)

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