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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. In Heavy Boots - Heavier Boots, what does each nail in A.R. Black's bed represent?

2. How does Oskar Schell meet Gerald Thompson in What The?

3. In Why I'm Not Where You Are, what does Thomas Schell, Sr., wonder about his doppelgangers?

4. What do the guard, Grandma's uncle, and the killer in My Feelings have in common?

5. During their conversation in My Feelings, what does Mom do for Grandma for the first time?

Short Essay Questions

1. When do Anna and Thomas discover they love each other in Why I'm Not Where You Are?

2. When does Grandma first see Thomas in Dresden?

3. What happens with Grandma on the evening of September 11, 2001?

4. What do Abby Black and Oskar Schell talk about in The Only Animal?

5. What is the purpose of the drain system Oskar imagines in Googolplex?

6. What two ways does Oskar communicate with Grandma in Googolplex?

7. What happens to Oskar when he arrives home on September 11, 2001?

8. What does Grandma do the day before Dresden is bombed?

9. What is the significance of the storage unit in The Only Animal?

10. Why does Grandma get samples of letters as a child in My Feelings?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The three central characters of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close have all lost someone key to their lives and are painfully lost and isolated as a result. Write an essay about each of their isolation. What is missing from their lives since the loss? How do they deal with this pain on a day to day basis, and what emotions pervade as a result? Who attempts to reach out to them and how do they respond?

Part 1) Thomas Schell, Sr.

Part 2) Grandma.

Part 3) Oskar Schell.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the role that the past plays in defining the present in the novel. How is every major character in the novel a product of past that they may or may not know? To what extent are Grandma and Thomas Schell, Sr., the keepers of this history? Why do they choose not to explicate this history to the younger generations of the novel? In the end, how does the younger generation, as represented by Oskar, discover the reality of its roots through accidental contact with the older?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay discussing the notion that Oscar Schell is a child and a man simultaneously. How does his interaction with family, classmates and strangers reflect a style of speech and intellectual curiosity beyond his years? To whom does he write letters and why? In the second part of the essay, discuss how Oskar psychologically has been forced to mature in his fears, anxieties, and needs before his time. Why has he been left at a mid-point between childhood and adulthood?

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