51 pages • 1 hour read
Robert SharenowThe Berlin Boxing Club
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
At the end of the novel, Karl states that he may never box again. Do you think that he has still learned some lessons from boxing that he will be able to carry over into his new American life?
How do you think that Karl’s boxing helps him while he is living in Nazi-occupied Berlin? How does it not help him?
Why is drawing cartoons important to Karl? Do you think that his relationship to his art changes over the course of the novel? In what ways?
Near the end of the novel, Max Schmeling speaks to Karl about a boxing technique called “the feint.” In what ways do you think that this technique is useful to Karl? In what ways do you think that it is not useful?
Karl declares near the end of the novel that the Countess is one of the bravest people he’s ever known. What do you think he means by this?
How do you understand Karl’s mother, as a character? Do you think that she is a strong character or a weak one? Why?
What do you think Karl’s attitude toward his own Jewish identity is? In what ways does he feel Jewish, and in what ways does he not? Do you think that his attitude changes over the course of the novel?
Karl states that neither Max Schmeling nor his father were able to be their best selves—to be “fully modern men”—because of the Nazi regime. In what ways did the Nazi regime hold each man back and keephim from expressing his modernity?
Do you see Karl’s onetime girlfriend, Greta, as a sympathetic character? Why or why not?
At the end of the book, Karl decides that he must integrate the best parts of his father and Max Schmeling into himself, in order to “become his own man.” What do you think are the best parts of these two different men? What do you think are their failings?
