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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. Where does Tod Friendly meet many of his girlfriends?

2. What does the man in the basement apartment say when John Young says, "You were expecting me, my name is John Young"?

3. Why are the people on the ship to America happy?

4. Who is the narrator?

5. What does the old man tell Tod Friendly after the narrator sees Tod drive his car away from the fire hydrant?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how the narrator feels about Tod Friendly's work?

2. What is the narrator's relationship with Tod Friendly?

3. What are some of the terms the narrator coins in order to make things make sense?

4. What is the key to substance for the narrator?

5. Does Tod Friendly/John Young seem to be a good person?

6. What does the narrator understand about sex?

7. Describe the underground system for taking care of Nazis.

8. What does the narrator think about Tod Friendly's dreams and memories?

9. What is Tod's relationship with the narrator?

10. Is there any place where the narrator's understanding is more accurate than Tod Friendly's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Holocaust is almost impossible to represent in literature or film. Does this book succeed in giving you a sense of the horror and wrongness of what took place during the war? Where is the book most believable and effective? Where does it stir the reader's sympathies and feelings? Where does it leave the reader detached and unfeeling, apart from the action? Does the book deliberately try to overcome the reader's aversion to difficult material? Is the backwardness of the narration an effective method for getting the reader to read about something hard to bear? What other techniques does the author use for conveying difficult or painful information? Cite specific examples from the text in your answer.

Essay Topic 2

By the time he gets to America as John Young and then Tod Friendly, Odilo Unverdorben is on a mission to redeem himself.

1. Whose forgiveness does he seek? Does he attain it from them? Why or why not?

2. Who would Odilo have had to go to, to get forgiveness? Is there anyone with authority who could absolve him of his actions?

3. Is it enough that Odilo tries to redeem himself? Do his actions balance each other? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

What would you have done if you were Odilo Unverdorben's age in Germany when the Nazis were coming to power? Given what you know about the progressively tighter restrictions on Jews' behavior, would you have followed along, or would you have kept yourself apart from the fascism, or would you have resisted it? Cite instances from the book of the kinds of choices you would have faced, and cite instances from your own experience as you discuss how you would have faced them.

(see the answer keys)

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