1. What is gained by telling the story from Fritz's point of view as he grows up rather than telling it from his parents' or Friedrich's point of view?

2. For what purposes has Richter written this story?

3. In writing fiction, authors frequently make it easy for the reader to decide what the right or wrong solutions to problems are. Richter, however, provides no easy answers to decisions the central characters must make. What are some of the dilemmas Fritz's parents face, and why are there no easy answers?

4. What evidence, if any, does the narrative give to indicate that if their roles in German society were reversed, the Schneiders might offer Fritz's family more, the same, or less help than Fritz's family offers the Schneiders?

5. Following the war years, with what emotions might Fritz and his parents remember how they responded...