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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. Who did the killer in My Feelings murder?

2. Which of the following is not an adjective that Anna uses to describe kissing in My Feelings?

3. Which of the following acquaintances is not one that Grandma asks for a letter sample in My Feelings?

4. What words does Oskar Schell tell Abby Black define her in The Only Animal?

5. Who wrote Oskar's favorite book?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Thomas Schell's first meeting with his future wife?

2. What suggestion does Grandma make to Thomas about their relationship in My Feelings?

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

4. How does Grandma write her memoirs in Why I'm Not Where You Are?

5. What surprise awaits Grandma the day of her son's funeral?

6. How does Thomas Schell Sr. speak after losing his voice?

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

8. What is A.R. Black's card system?

9. What ideas does Oskar Schell come up with in the beginning of What The?

10. What is Oskar's attitude toward Jimmy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The end of the novel is a strangely happy one, though it does not contain anything that concretely resolves the conflicts of the novel. Write an essay about the ending of Oskar's narrative and what it means to him and to the reader:

Part 1) What is the resolution of the quest of the key? Discuss why William Black would need the key and why Dad had it in a vase. Does this resolution, in the end, offer anything illuminating to Oskar Schell regarding his father? How was the journey to this resolution more important than the destination?

Part 2) What understand do Oskar and his mother reach in the final chapter of the novel? What single request does he make of her and what concession does he give regarding her happiness? Does she make any concrete promises him regarding the future?

Part 3) Discuss the fantasy that ends the novel. What alternate reality does Oskar create for his father, beginning with his picture in the Stuff That Happened to Me book? How does this provide the novel with a bittersweet happy ending?

Essay Topic 2

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is, at its roots, a study of human yearning for love in the face of brutal cataclysm. In the novel, characters lose each other and find each other in the crucible of tragedy. Write an essay about this in three parts:

Part 1) What is lost to the major character of the novel in the wake of the attack of September 11, 2001? How are existing bonds strengthened in the wake of this tragedy? In this paragraph, discuss the relationships among Oskar, Mom, and Grandma.

Part 2) Write a paragraph about the bombing of Dresden. How does this horrific event of World War II affect the Schell and Schmidt families? Who is lost in this bombing? How does the bombing, in the end, lead to another marriage and the birth of a child?

Part 3) In summation, discuss how a marriage that was destroyed by the memories of Dresden is reunited in the wake of September 11th. Who returns to whom in the aftermath? What characters begin to learn about their roots as a result of this reunion?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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