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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 Ernie have to sew to stay with The Association?

2. Why did Ernie decide not to join the protest movements?

3. What work does Ernie find in Paris?

4. What does the SS officer suspect Ernie of doing?

5. What does Ernie smell as he gets out of the boxcar?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the old men of The Association of Zemyock say it is useless to do with any Levy?

2. Why does Ernie compare himself to a cat?

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

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

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

6. What causes the Levy family the first tinge of fear that life in France will be the equivalent of their lives in Germany?

7. What were the Jews told to take with them into the "Baths and Inhalations"?

8. What changes does Madame Trochu make when she understands that Ernie is a Jew?

9. Why do the children scream when the boxcar stops?

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

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 spends a large part of the book establishing a genealogy for Ernie that places him as the last of the Just Men. In your essay, select some of Ernie's ancestors and explain how the characteristics they demonstrated in their lifetimes are apparent in his actions.

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate this story in terms of tone and mood. Is it unrelentingly dark? Are there funny scenes? Are there lovable characters? Are all of the non-Jews evil? How does the author keep his reading audience from being overwhelmed by despair at this story? Use concrete examples and quotations from the story to support your ideas.

(see the answer keys)

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