View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When are Ben's parents liberated from a concentration camp?

2. What does Ben's father forbid anyone mentioning?

3. Of what is Michaela afraid after visiting a museum?

4. How does Jakob feel in Greece?

5. Who visits Ben before he is five?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are Ben's parents described?

2. How does Jakob relate a theory by Einstein to the Holocaust?

3. What theme does Ben incorporate into his thesis?

4. How does Ben find Jakob's study?

5. What is the parable of the rabbi traveling incognito and what is the moral of the parable?

6. Describe Jakob's first meeting with Michaela.

7. What does Ben recall about his father and mother when Ben is growing up?

8. What is the significance of the color yellow?

9. Describe Ben's futile search for Jakob's journals.

10. How are Jakob's initial days in Greece?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Jakob emphasizes that he does not see the horrors that visit European Jewry during World War II while he is living in Greece. He endures hardships on Zakynthos and lives in constant fear of the door being bashed in, as had happened in his home in Poland. All of Zakynthos's Jews are saved from the Nazis through the courage of the Christian mayor and archbishop. By comparison, most of the Jews on nearby Corfu perish by drowning or in concentration camps.

1. Discuss what affect the constant fear with which Jakob lives would have on a young boy. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

2. Discuss reasons you think some people like the mayor and Bishop tried to help the Jewish people and others did not. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

3. Discuss, in depth, the concept of courage as it relates to the mayor and the archbishop. Use examples from your own life and "Fugitive Pieces" to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

1. What is foreshadowing? How many incidences of foreshadowing are in "Fugitive Pieces"? How does foreshadowing contribute to a book's suspense?

2. Discuss an example of foreshadow in "Fugitive Pieces" including why you believe it is foreshadow. Include examples from the book and your own life to illustrate your answer.

3. How do you think most people react to uncertainty in their lives? Use examples from "Fugitive Pieces" and your own live to support your opinion.

Essay Topic 3

Often, authors will write about "what they know," and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the books more interesting. Discuss the following:

1. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Anne Michaels.

2. What in Michaels' background may have helped her in writing "Fugitive Pieces"? What may have influenced the way he depicts various characters and scenes?

3. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her novels? Why or why not? Give examples.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,003 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample