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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 scrounge up enough money to buy?
2. Who is Mr. Bond?
3. Why is the narrator not allowed to travel to the USSR?
4. What does Charlotte do after the young woman is killed?
5. What causes Pashka to cry?
Short Essay Questions
1. Who is the only person in the narrator's class who treats him kindly?
2. What does the narrator feel when he is staying in the tombs and what symptoms did he think he had?
3. What does Charlotte tell the narrator about death?
4. How does Pashka feel about the narrator's new popularity and what does Pashka do about it?
5. What does the narrator do about three years after staying in the tombs and why was it difficult to do? How did he overcome the difficulty?
6. What catches the narrator's attention almost obsessively?
7. What happens when the narrator's mother goes for some medical tests?
8. What do the narrator and Pashka do on their fishing trips?
9. How does Pashka almost drown once?
10. What does the narrator realize concerning his grandmother and France?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss the following:
1. What do you think are the characteristics of a successful novel?
2. Analyze and discuss "Dreams of My Russian Summers" based upon the criteria you decide upon in #1 and judge if Dreams of My Russian Summers is a successful novel.
3. Do you think the criteria for a successful novel should be different if it is written for adults versus young adults? Why or why not? Would most adults consider "Dreams of My Russian Summers" a successful novel? What about young teens?
Essay Topic 2
"Dreams of My Russian Summers" belongs to the fictional memoir genre. Discuss the following:
1. Define the literary term "genre" and give several examples of three other genres in addition to the fictional memoir genre.
2. Discuss two reasons why it might be useful to label a text by genre and two reasons it might be disadvantageous to label a text by genre.
3. What do you think is the difference between a fictional memoir and a historical novel?
Essay Topic 3
Upon returning to Russia, the narrator dives into books about France and French history, spending entire days lost in the dust-covered volumes of the public library. His interest in French history has taken his attention away from other childhood things like sports and movies, which has made him a target for bullies in his school. The only person who treats the narrator kindly is a young man in school everyone considers to be a dunce. The narrator's position as an outsider in his school is important to note because the entire novel surrounds the narrator's struggle to discover where he fits in in the world - is he Russian or is he French?
1. Why do you think the narrator became so deeply immerged in studying France and French history? Use examples from "Dreams of My Russian Summers" to support your answer.
2. Do you think that a student who is very different from his or her classmates is always bullied or ostracized? Why or why not? Use examples from "Dreams of My Russian Summers" to support your answer.
3. Why do you think it was so important to the narrator to figure out if he fit into society in Russia or in France? Use examples from "Dreams of My Russian Summers" to support your answer.
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This section contains 1,181 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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