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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. How does Odilo Unverdorben behave in a crowd?

2. What does the narrator think about Auschwitz now that he is seeing it again in Odilo Unverdorben's youth?

3. How does the narrator feel when Odilo Unverdorben returns to married life in the years before Auschwitz?

4. Who owns Auschwitz when Odilo Unverdorben visits it with his parents?

5. In what condition is Auschwitz when the narrator thinks Odilo Unverdorben arrives there?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the similarities and differences between the narrator and Uncle Pepi.

2. How does the narrator's relationship with Herta progress?

3. What does the narrator think about Auschwitz when he sees it through Odilo Unverdorben's thirteen-year-old eyes?

4. How does the narrator's impression of the killings at Schless-Hartheim increase the reader's sense of sympathy for the people the Nazis killed there?

5. The narrator and Uncle Pepi both see the work at Auschwitz as 100% successful. How does their agreement, from such different viewpoints, affect the reader?

6. Name four methods Odilo Unverdorben sees the Germans use to "process" the Jews?

7. Describe the irony of the narrator's impression of Odilo Unverdorben's relationship with Jews.

8. How does the narrator describe the Jews' experiences at Auschwitz?

9. What are the conditions the narrator finds when Odile Unverdorben arrives at Auschwitz?

10. Describe the narrator's relationship with Odilo Unverdorben in the years before/after Odilo began to work in the camps.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

The narrator and Odilo both have secret knowledge which others around them do not know.

1. Citing specific examples from the text, describe the effect of secrets on Odilo and the narrator. Who can they tell? Who do they have to keep the secrets from? How do the secrets affect their decisions or their feelings?

2. What part do the secrets play in the characters' development? What kinds of things are possible because of their secret knowledge? What kinds of things are impossible?

3. Why is Odilo afraid of being found out? Is there ever a time when he acts honestly, or considers revealing his secret to another character?

Essay Topic 3

Babies are a recurring image in Time's Arrow. Cite three instances where babies appear and describe their significance in the context where they occur; then describe their symbolic significance. What qualities do they represent in Odilo's life? In the narrator's? In the other characters?

(see the answer keys)

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