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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. What does Vladek dream will happen at Parshas Truma?

2. What does Artie's father chide him with, while he is telling Artie stories?

3. What period is covered by Chapter 1?

4. How does Anja’s family mend fences after the arrest she caused due to her work with her friend?

5. How does Artie’s father characterize his relationship with women?

Short Essay Questions

1. What political news do Vladek and Anja hear on their way to Czechoslovakia?

2. What tasks are Vladek and his companions given at the work assignment?

3. In Chapter 1, how does Artie characterize his relationship with his father?

4. In addition to Vladek being released from the work camp during Parshas Truma, what events take place at Parshas Truma?

5. What animals are people depicted as, in Maus?

6. What effect does the birth of Richieu have on Vladek and Anja?

7. What two worlds are juxtaposed in the opening scene?

8. Describe Vladek’s experience during battle.

9. What explains Vladek’s decision to marry Anja and not Lucia Greenberg?

10. How does Artie’s father characterize himself in the time before he met Anja?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How would you rewrite Maus if you were to adapt it and make it your own? What part of the book would you preserve? What part would you change? Explain your motivation for the changes you would make.

Essay Topic 2

Use this book as a meditation on the value of a five-star rating system. Is a five-star system sufficient to a book like this? Would you need to have sub-topics for the rating system, for plot, characterization, language, etc? What other sub-topics would you need? What value or importance gets lost in a five-star scale? Design a scale that would be better for this book.

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate your own reading of Maus—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

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