View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what city was the attorney's office which helped Balakian's grandmother file the compensation claim?

2. In what month and year did Balakian's grandmother initiate formal compensation claims against the Turkish government?

3. What disease did Balakian's grandmother almost die from when the family was in Aleppo?

4. In what year was the memoir Armenian Golgotha reissued (in Armenian)?

5. What is involved in the torture method called bastinado?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was significant about Nafina's attempt to seek compensation from the Turkish government by filing documents in the United States?

2. How did writing the poem, "The History of Armenia," help Balakian process his new knowledge of his people's history?

3. Why was Balakian surprised the Syrian government suppressed published works about the Armenian genocide?

4. What was significant about the murder of 250 Armenian intellectuals on the eve of the genocide and what was significant about Bishop Balakian's survival?

5. How does genocide denial affect the survivors and their descendants?

6. What was Nafina's reaction to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?

7. What did Dovey mean when she said that Turkish culture was theft?

8. How does numbness help people who have endured great horrors?

9. Why did Balakian eventually come to see his family's silence about the genocide as a gift?

10. How was the Armenian-Lebanese town of Anjar settled?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Before the massacres began, the Turkish government rounded up and executed 250 Armenian intellectuals. How did this serve as a precursor for the mass killings to follow? Why would a genocidal government first kill a community's intellectuals? Did it make it easier to commit mass murder by eliminating those who would be most articulate in denouncing the crimes? Have there been other genocides preceded by the rounding up of a certain subset of the victim population?

Essay Topic 2

Balakian's aunts were deeply critical of American suburban life, believing that it lacked culture and refinement. Write a compare and contrast essay looking at both the attitudes of the family members toward the suburbs versus the city and the realities they encountered in their separate worlds. Include ways in which the cities and suburbs were similar as well as ways in which they were markedly different. Compare the cultural offerings as well as the sense of community in the two areas.

Essay Topic 3

Armenians in the United States--including Balakian's family--generally attempted to assimilate into American culture. How did this assimilation impact their ability to thrive after the genocide? Did assimilation mean an abandonment of Armenian culture? Or did they maintain traditions that could no longer be maintained in their wiped out homeland? Did assimilation make it easier for the survivors and their descendants to deal with the fact of genocide?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,126 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample