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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. Where do Arn and Munny hide when they hear the sounds of a nearby battle during their make-believe game of war?

2. How old is Arn when the novel's narrative first begins?

3. When the Khmer Rouge evacuate all of the cities in order to force everyone into agricultural work, how many days do they tell the villagers they will be gone?

4. What is the event that first causes Arn to think maybe the Khmer Rouge have evil intentions?

5. How do the Khmer Rouge soldiers react when Arn asks them if they want to play soccer with him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the signs that lead Arn to think that perhaps the Mango Grove is a mass burial site used by the Khmer Rouge to inter their victims?

2. Before the arrival of the Khmer Rouge in his village, how does Arn feel about the war he knows is being fought outside his town and what does he spend most of his time doing?

3. What do Arn and his little brother Munny do after they sneak in to see the American movie and what happens to make them hide?

4. After Arn is chosen by Khmer Rouge leaders to play music in their band, Arn sees there are positive results and negative results of his being chosen. What are they and what does this show about one's fate under the rule of the Khmer Rouge?

5. What is ironic about the fact that the rice crop falls significantly short of the Khmer Rouge's expectations and they then reduce everyone's food allotment even further than before?

6. How does Arn describe his village at the opening of the novel before the Khmer Rouge arrive?

7. How is the theme of generosity demonstrated in the scene when the children are finally fed rice in anticipation of their first performance for the Khmer Rouge soldiers?

8. When the current leader of the camp tells Mek that he and band will soon be going somewhere new, they are all terrified that they will be killed instead and that this is just another instance of the Khmer Rouge's euphemisms. However, they are not killed and what happens instead introduces the theme of fame into the novel. What happens in lieu of their deaths?

9. What ploy do the Khmer Rouge use to get the government soldiers to come to the airport and what happens once they arrive?

10. How does Arn fix the problem of the new music teacher's apathy and what effect does this solution have on the band's members?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Desensitization is a coping mechanism Arn uses often in order to retain his sanity in the midst of the horrors all around him. Describe and analyze three of these instances and use them to explain how the author uses them to help the reader keep rooting for Arn even though at times he commits atrocities that in normal circumstances would seem unforgivable.

Essay Topic 2

The epilogue of the novel provides the reader with information about the real man on whom the novel's fictional story is based. Discuss the author's choice to include this epilogue and its intended effect on the reader within the context of the whole novel.

Essay Topic 3

In modern, first-world society, there is often a counter-cultural drive to move away from materialism and to focus on what really matters. However, Arn's interactions with the Khmer Rouge often instead highlight the importance of owning certain objects and relying on them to help define our identities. Discuss the conflict between these two points of view concerning materialism, drawing on examples from the novel to prove your claim.

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