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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 natural occurrence does Ruth Black talk about in Alive and Alone?

2. Which two career paths does Allen Black imagine for his son in Happiness, Happiness?

3. How fast is the Sixth Borough drifting away from New York in the story?

4. How does Oskar respond to A.R. Black's announcement that he is quitting the search?

5. What event does interviewee at the beginning of Happiness, Happiness describe?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Stephen Hawking say to Oskar in A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem?

2. What is Oskar's attitude toward Dr. Fein?

3. What does does Thomas tell his son about his and and his former wife's location at the beginning Why I'm Not Where You Are?

4. What does Thomas learn immediately before the bombing of Dresden begins?

5. What is happening in Dad's fourth message?

6. Describe Thomas's experience during the bombing of Dresden.

7. What decision does Oskar make at the end of Alive and Alone?

8. What does Oskar tell Thomas, Sr. over the course of Alive and Alone?

9. How does the sixth borough's drift affect a boy and girl in the story?

10. What does Dad relate about optimism to Oskar in the The Sixth Borough?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the relationship between Grandma and her sister Anna. Focus primarily on the period immediately before the bombing of Dresden. How is one girl experiencing sexuality at the same time as another is experiencing an innocent curiosity about sexually? How are they both bound to Thomas Schell, Sr. before the bombing happens? To what extent is Anna's death instrumental in bringing Grandma and Thomas together in America?

Essay Topic 2

The structure of the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is unusual from the beginning, with the mixing of different narrators and syntax styles, but Jonathan Safran Foer further muddies the narrative waters by having the narrative regularly interrupted by pages that contain something other than plot. Write an essay about these pages, discussing what their connection to the narrative is. Who, presumably, has inserted them into the novel and why? How does their inclusion affect the way the novel is perceived as an object? What does it become?

Part 1) Photos

Part 2) Pages with a single phrase on them.

Part 3) Blank pages.

Essay Topic 3

Oskar Schell is a character with a number of idiosyncrasies: collecting odd pictures, contacting famous scientists, and punching himself. Write an essay in which you choose three idiosyncrasies and analyze the root of their existence. What purpose do they serve in Oskar's daily life? How does he use them to fend off sadness, embarrassment, and fear? Do any of them appear to be inherited in some respect from his father? Sum up the essay by discussing what Oskar fears in the wake of his father's death and what he wants out of life, connecting these objectives to the character ticks that define him.

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