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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 do the SS officers tell the Jewish prisoners that the men will be doing?

2. What actually awaited the Jews at Pichipoi?

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

4. How does Ernie respond when reprimanded by the doctor for telling the children their experience was just a dream?

5. What is Ernie's goal as a he roams the Rhone Valley?

Short Essay Questions

1. How was it possible that the majority of the condemned Jews realized what was happening to them only once inside the gas chambers?

2. Where did the Nazis tell the Jews they were going in the boxcars?

3. What change does touching Melanie make in Ernie?

4. Why does Madame Trochu, the farmer's wife, distrust Ernie?

5. What details alert Ernie to the fact that the passengers will never leave this place?

6. Why is Ernie unable to fight to defend Jacob, even though he trains himself to do so?

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

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

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

Everyone in Ernie's family has a different view of God and what the deity will or will not do for humans. In your essay, discuss the contrasts among the various understandings of God.

Essay Topic 2

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 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.

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