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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. About what do the boys chant?

2. Why does Friedrich leave his apartment?

3. With what does Schuster order the boys to load their packs?

4. Where is Friedrich?

5. What name does Friedrich call Resch?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when a Storm Trooper takes over the physical education of the German school boys during his spare time?

2. How does Friedrich's family celebrate his Bar Mitzvah?

3. Despite all that Friedrich has been through, what demonstrates his goodness?

4. What demonstrates the fact that the narrator's family has not completely turned its backs on the Schneiders as so many other non-Jewish Germans have?

5. Who visits the Schneiders and what happens?

6. What does the narrator do with the mob and why do you think he is capable of those acts when his best friend is Jewish?

7. What is ironic about the way Resch treats his garden polycarp in contrast to how he treats Friedrich?

8. What does Friedrich's appearance suggest?

9. Why are Friedrich and his father having uncharacteristic arguments, and why is there tension in the apartment when the narrator goes up to take the Schneiders some potatoes?

10. What happens when the narrator returns home and how does his response present a different side of the narrator?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The first section determines the action takes place somewhere in Germany after World War I, when the victorious Allies are taking economic vengeance on the losers. Choose one of the following questions in a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What is the situation like in Germany post WWI? Give examples of the economic and political conditions.

2. Many say Hitler's rise to power is a direct result of how Germany is treated in the war. Learn more about this and give your opinion.

3. How could the Allied powers have done things differently to help Germany recover in such a way that it does not set up an opening for the type of situation that Hitler creates?

Essay Topic 2

In the chapter titled, "The Hearing," the Judge tells Resch's attorney he sees no legal ground for evicting the Schneiders. the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Research pre-WWII Germany and learn about the legal, political and human resistance to Hitler's growing repression and control of Germany.

2. How much resistance is offered? Who offered the most--religious institutions? Social institutions? Political groups?

3. How do those groups oppose Hitler? Protests? Legal injunctions? Elections?

4. Why do you think those groups/individuals fail to halt Hitler's advance to power?

Essay Topic 3

In the chapter "Friday Evening," the narrator shares the Sabbath dinner with Friedrich's family. Choose one of the following questions in a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. The Friday evening Sabbath service is a rite or ceremony within the Jewish faith. Many other religions have rites and ceremonies also. Identify several rites/ceremonies either religious or secular and explain the reason for each.

2. What is the purpose of rites or ceremonies? Are they necessary for human culture? For individuals?

3. Some say that part of the reason the modern culture is declining is a lack of tradition, which would include rites and ceremonies. Take a stand either to affirm or refute this idea using specific examples.

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