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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. About whom does Odilo Unverdorben dream in the time before the war?
2. What do Odilo Unverdorben and Herta discuss while she is pregnant?
3. What happens to the Jews in Germany when the racial laws are passed?
4. Where does the narrator think Herta's letters come from?
5. What is the name of Odilo Unverdorben's baby?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is the importance of Odilo Unverdorben's childhood home?
2. Describe the irony of the narrator thinking that Odilo Unverdorben and Herta are taking apart baby furniture and un-sewing baby clothes.
3. 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?
4. 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?
5. Describe the narrator's relationship with Odilo Unverdorben in the years before/after Odilo began to work in the camps.
6. Describe Odilo Unverdorben's relationship with his father.
7. What is the narrator's last experience before he dies?
8. Describe the similarities and differences between Odilo Unverdorben and Uncle Pepi.
9. How do Odilo Unverdorben's dreams change as he returns (according to the narrator's backward timeline) to his youth?
10. How does Odilo Unverdorben's language change during his time at Auschwitz?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
The narrator and Odilo Unverdorben are both characters in the author's narration. Does the author ever indicate his support of one or the other? Whose side does the author seem to be on? Cite specific instances from the text where the narration or the irony give you insight into the author's own point of view. How would you characterize the author's beliefs or feelings? How does the author's perspective differ from the narrator's or Odilo's?
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
Compare and contrast the characters of Odilo Unverdorben and the narrator. How are their experiences similar? How are their experiences different? Is one happier than the other, or is one a better person than the other?
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This section contains 942 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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