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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. In reality, who are the baron and his daughter?

2. Most people think that it was the work of a group of armed men, but what does the newspaper suggest?

3. What could The Boy see in the polished rear doors of the Pierce Arrow hearse?

4. How does the knowledge of Coalhouse Walker's activities eventually become known?

5. Who cares for the baby while Sarah lay dying in the hospital?

Short Essay Questions

1. What suddenly worries Sarah after the Fire House incident?

2. What happens to Sarah at the rally?

3. What causes the theater to shake where Houdini is performing?

4. What is keeping Father busy that summer?

5. What remarkable innovation in manufacturing took place about this time?

6. That spring, what happens at the Matteawan State Prison Farm?

7. What plans do Father and Mother make to get away from the Coalhouse problem?

8. What is Sarah's funeral like?

9. How have the fortunes of Tateh and The girl changed?

10. Why does J. P. Morgan want to meet with Henry Ford?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a paper about class distinctions in the novel. Examine the fixation Americans had on Europeans and whether it still exists today. [Compare to America's fixation on the late Princess Diana.] Use the arrival of Freud and Young as one example and Mother's preference for the Europeans at Atlantic City as another. Show how that also influences Tateh to adopt the persona of Baron Ashkenazy.

Essay Topic 2

Describe the rags-to-riches story of Tateh, aka Baron Ashkenazy. Tateh's story is the embodiment of the American dream--the poor immigrant who eventually achieves success. While you write this account focus on the moral shift in Tateh's thinking. Note the difference in his uptight morality that drove his wife and Evelyn away in the early part of the story and his romping with Mother in Atlantic City as the reinvented Baron Ashkenazy. There are even sexual overtones to the scene where they are searching for The Boy and The Girl and eventually they marry.

Essay Topic 3

Write your opinion of E. L. Doctorow's writing style. Include such things as his omitting quotation marks and writing in very short sentences. Cite specific passages in the novel that you think either did or did not convey (1) the feeling of the characters, (2) the imagery of the day, (3) the suspense of the plot, or any other concept you feel the novel addresses. How much does Doctorow's use of fictionalized real characters add to the interest of the novel?

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