Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Frank’s earliest scam includes using his gas card to get money to finance dates with women. Why might his father empathize with him? 

A) Frank’s father recognizes that his son is young and stupid.

B) Frank’s father has also been charmed by women and sees himself in his son.

C) Frank’s father has also gone through a phase of petty crime and believes that his son will grow out of it.

D) Frank’s father sees that Frank is coping with his parents’ divorce and feels partly responsible for his acting out.

2. What is the effect of Frank beginning the memoir by saying that a Virginia psychiatrist determined that Frank has a low criminal threshold?

A) It sets the reader up to be on Frank’s side for the rest of the book, even as he commits a variety of crimes.

B) It makes the reader wonder what it really means to be a criminal.

C) It suggests that criminality is in the eye of the beholder. Frank didn’t see himself as a criminal, so why would the reader?

D) It helps us to see that Frank doesn’t really know who he is.

3. What is the common thread between many of Frank’s assumed professions?

A) He chooses professions that appeal primarily to women.

B) He chooses professions that his father suggested when he was a young boy.

C) He chooses professions that allow him to try his hand at using different skills.

D) He chooses professions that are respected within society.

4. How does Frank’s approach of learning the lingo of each profession when assuming certain roles allow him to remain undetected?

A) Having insider knowledge helps Frank to actually perform the tasks he’s asked to do, such as fly planes or diagnose patients.

B) Having insider knowledge helps Frank to create a script for himself and to follow it, even when people question his credentials.

C) Having insider knowledge helps Frank to remain undetected by law enforcement.

D) Having insider knowledge helps Frank to hide behind the reputation of his fake superiors.

5. How does Frank leverage his rank as a pilot in order to get information from stewardesses, using them in the process?

A) He bribes them with money to get them to help him with his schemes.

B) He often blames stewardesses for his own mistakes when acting as a pilot.

C) He tries to impress them with his own knowledge so that they share more with him about policies and protocols.

D) He knows that stewardesses are often mistreated by pilots and uses his kindness to them to make them more sympathetic to him.

6. What is suggested by the fact that Frank cashes a check with his real name on it while flirting with a bank teller?

A) Frank sometimes becomes so caught up in his performance of a role that he forgets that it’s fake.

B) Frank was trying to come clean about who he was because he was in love.

C) Frank was sabotaging himself because he was tired of pretending to be someone else.

D) Frank was losing his edge.

7. What is suggested about Frank’s other relationships with women when he comes clean to Rosalie about his life as a con man?

A) That they were likely even more shallow

B) That he has lacked a true connection with anyone since he left home

C) That they would have turned him in too

D) That he is growing tired of his life on the run

8. What does it suggest about Frank that he sent the bail bondsman a $5000 check after he helped him?

A) It suggests that Frank has his own code of ethics and that he prides himself on keeping his word, even if he is a con man.

B) It suggests that Frank likes to tease those he takes advantage of.

C) It suggests that Frank believes he will never be caught.

D) It suggests that Frank seeks the thrill of the chase.

9. What are the most likely reasons that Frank conned Cheryl?

A) He likely believed he shouldn’t have to pay for sex and was resentful that she conned him by not revealing that she was a sex worker at first.

B) He likely believed he shouldn’t have to pay for sex and that they were both criminals anyway.

C) He likely believed that he was just conning another criminal and was resentful that she conned him by not revealing that she was a sex worker at first.

D) He likely believed that he could do whatever he wanted and that they were both criminals anyway.

10. How does Frank justify using the women from the University of Arizona on their European tour?

A) He is providing them an experience of the real world.

B) He is preparing them to be let down by life.

C) He is giving them a salary and a summer trip.

D) He is increasing their knowledge about Pan Am.

11. What does it suggest about Frank that he chooses to settle in Montpellier, where his mother is from?

A) He wants to be in a location he is familiar with.

B) He wants to have a connection to his home and childhood.

C) He wants a life where he will be unnoticed. 

D) He wants to start over.

12. What is ironic about Abagnale’s mother telling his relatives that he is hitchhiking around the world?

A) It is what Frank had initially set out to do before becoming a con man.

B) It is something that she has always wanted to do.

C) It is what Frank’s father did after she left him.

D) It is not far from the truth, except that Frank is a criminal.

13. How does Frank’s confrontation with himself in the mirror in prison compare with his vision of himself in a Pan Am mirror at the beginning of the memoir?

A) In the first instance, Frank sees who he could have been; in the second, he sees that there is no way he will ever achieve that.

B) In the first instance, Frank sees the life he has always wanted; in the second, he sees himself as taking the first step toward that life.

C) In the first instance, Frank sees who he wants to be; in the second, he does not recognize himself, not accepting the consequences of his actions.

D) In the first instance, Frank sees who he wants to be; in the second, he sees who he has become in reality.

14. Why might Abagnale and Stan Redding have chosen Catch Me If You Can as the title of this novel?

A) Because Frank believes that he is above the law

B) Because Frank repeatedly escapes the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, even if he is caught a few times

C) Because Frank is still on the run and this memoir is another way of teasing law enforcement

D) Because Frank believed that it was a catchy title

15. Why was it important to Frank that he never conned individuals, only large corporate entities like banks, airlines, and hotels protected by insurance?

A) It made him feel like he was getting back at those who had forced his father to become a postal worker.

B) It made him feel like was committing victimless crimes, absolving him of guilt.

C) It made him feel like he was outsmarting those older than him.

D) It made him feel like he was important.

Long-Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1.  Frank is a con man, and he has built his career around pretending to be someone else. Should we trust Frank as a narrator? Why or why not?

2. What are some of the ways in which Frank has shown a fondness for things that remind him of his family? What effects do these have on his criminal career?