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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 the narrator think of Odilo Unverdorben in his youth?

2. Where does the narrator think that the Waffen Secret Service gets the ashes with which to make people?

3. How does the narrator think Odilo Unverdorben's father is going to kill him?

4. What would Herta do after Odilo Unverdorben would spend hours begging for her attention?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the irony of the narrator thinking that Odilo Unverdorben and Herta are taking apart baby furniture and un-sewing baby clothes.

2. Describe Odilo Unverdorben's relationship with his father.

3. Describe the narrator's relationship with Odilo Unverdorben by the end of this chapter, at which point Odilo has just arrived at Schless-Hartheim.

4. Describe Odilo Unverdorben's work in the Waffen Secret Service.

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

6. How does Odilo Unverdorben's relationship with Herta change when he arrives at Schless-Hartheim?

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

8. Describe the similarities and differences between Odilo Unverdorben and Uncle Pepi.

9. Describe Odilo Unverdorben's relationship with his mother.

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Men and women have different perspectives on the events of this book.

1. How do men's and women's perspectives differ? How are they similar? How would you characterize men's perspectives, and how would you characterize women's? Do individuals have both male and female characteristics?

2. Where do men's and women's perspectives and values come into conflict? Whose values or whose power wins those conflicts?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

In spite of his emigration and his success in America, Odilo Unverdorben is still tormented by guilt. Cite three cases in which Odilo does something in order to alleviate his guilt.

1. How does guilt operate on him? How can you describe the nature of guilt? How does it work? When does his guilt begin?

2. Is Odilo successful at mitigating his guilt? Does his guilt end? If so, when?

3. Does Odilo ever inflict on himself the same acts of cruelty that he inflicted on other people?

(see the answer keys)

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