What mission does the harmonica have, and how well does it fulfill its mission?

• What does the Prologue say the harmonica must accomplish? 
• How does the harmonica help Friedrich, Mike, Ivy, and the important people in their lives? What does this have to do with the harmonica being called “Messenger” in Part 1 of the Epilogue?
• Whose life does the harmonica save in Part 4? Who are the women with “beautiful and otherworldly” voices in Chapter 3 of this part?
• In Part 2 of the Epilogue, what happens to Eins, Zwei, and Drei? What does this imply about the harmonica’s mission?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt invites students to trace the motif of the harmonica throughout the various sections of the story and determine its impact on the characters. The bulleted sub-questions create a step-by-step guide to a thorough answer. Some parts of these sub-questions ask for strictly factual information, but others require students to make inferences and offer evaluations; if your class is answering the prompt in writing, you might point this out and give students some guidance about how to properly explain their reasoning for answers that are opinion rather than fact.

Differentiation Suggestion: A careful answer to this question requires students to review large portions of text.