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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. Over what does Friedrich weep?

2. What does Friedrich start doing with a girl?

3. With whom does Friedrich nearly collide?

4. What does Herr Schneider start to say?

5. Who does the rabbi say will help him further?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do you think Resch means when he says, "his luck that he died this way"?

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

3. Who visits the Schneiders and what happens?

4. How are these chants a perversion of Jewish historical events?

5. What is the narrator's ethical dilemma concerning this situation?

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

7. What does this second eviction notice suggest?

8. What happens and what is the significance of it when Friedrich and the narrator are leaving the pool?

9. Describe the Jewish death ritual.

10. How is the name "Vulture" an apt one for Resch?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The chapter titled "The Movie" is very significant in understanding how the German people came to be active Jew persecutors or at the very least placidly compliant in the slaughter and persecution of Jews. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Research the movie Sweet Jew and do a critical analysis of the content.

2. Research the history of the German film industry from its internationally acclaimed status in the early part of the 20th century to its decline in quality when it began being used by the Nazi party for the dissemination of propaganda. Write an essay chronicling the changes.

3. How are movies still used to support and promote certain political or social agendas? Write an essay discussing this topic.

Essay Topic 2

The chapter titled "The Pogrom" is probably a very difficult one for many readers, not only because it is the first instance of physical harm done to a character but also because of the narrator's seeming betrayal of his Jewish friends. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Research and explain the topic of mob psychology and how this applies to the narrator's participation in the destruction.

2. What is a pogrom? Research the history of pogroms and cite some of the most well-known ones. Have they always been against Jews? Why do you think otherwise sane and good people participate in a pogrom?

3. Could you ever imagine yourself participating in the kind of activities that take place in this chapter? Not necessarily against the Jews, but against some group of people with whom you feel uncomfortable or threatened. Write an essay about this topic.

Essay Topic 3

In the chapter, "Conversations on the Stairs," we see the first example of the courage of the narrator's father, though he is, like most humans a mixture of seemingly conflicting emotions and behaviors. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Take one major character and show how the character is a mixture of both admirable and less-than-admirable traits. Why do you think this is so? Is anyone ever always one way or another?

2. Most of us have had the experience of doing something that was "not like us." We are fearful when we are usually brave, or vice versa. Mean when usually kind; pessimistic when usually optimistic, etc....Relate one or two incidents in your life when you did something that was not like you. Explain why you did it; whether you regret your choices, and if you would make the same choice again.

3. Choose several well-known politicians, celebrities or other persons who have done things that seemed out of character for that person, or did something completely opposite of what s/he indicated s/he intended. State the situations and analyze each situation, answering the same questions in number 2 above.

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