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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 Rodriguez think skin color says about financial status?

2. What changes Rodriguez's ideas about his complexion?

3. How does Rodriguez think about the old religious traditions of his childhood?

4. Does Rodriguez's mother blame him for what happened to their family?

5. As an adult, what do people think his complexion says about him?

Short Essay Questions

1. As more minority students attend college, what does Rodriguez notice about their relationship to their culture? Give specific examples.

2. How does Rodriguez feel about white students' attitudes toward affirmative action?

3. How does Rodriguez describe his mother's interaction with the public world? Give specific examples.

4. What conversation does Rodriguez have with a colleague about teaching positions? What decision does Rodriguez make as a result of that conversation?

5. Now that he is older, how do people respond to Rodriguez's skin color?

6. Why does Rodriguez's mother call him "Mr. Secrets"? In spite of his secretive behavior, what does Rodriguez believe she knows?

7. What does Rodriguez think about the current system of affirmative action? Give two examples he uses to support his argument.

8. What does Rodriguez learn from working with the construction workers? Give two specific examples.

9. How does Rodriguez handle applying for teaching positions?

10. How do people respond to Rodriguez's skin color when he is younger?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Every book has flat and round characters. A flat character is two-dimensional, someone who serves a purpose in the book but does not seem like a living, breathing person. A round character is one who is fully developed and seems like a real person. If you read a story about a boyfriend and girlfriend eating dinner at a restaurant, the boyfriend and girlfriend will be round characters. The people at the next table or the waiter who serves them their food are probably flat characters.

Part One: Besides Richard Rodriguez, which characters in this book are round? In other words, which ones have fully developed characteristics and identities? Which ones do you feel like you really know? How big a role do these characters play in the book?

Part Two: Which characters are flat or two-dimensional? Do not try to list all of them, but pick out at least four characters that serve an important purpose, but still do not get fully developed. For example, how well developed is the priest who comes to visit? Or the group of black teenagers on the bus?

Part Three: Think as the author for a moment. Why did Rodriguez choose to make some important characters flat? Why did Rodriguez choose to make other important characters round? What does that say about the character or Rodriguez's relationship with the character?

Essay Topic 2

Rodriguez repeatedly describes his experience of moving from a small, sheltered, or narrow world to a larger, less protected, more broad-minded world as he grows up. As he grows up, his views change on:

1) Skin color

2) Religion

3) The importance of language as a way to develop intimacy

4) Books

Choose at least two of those. Identify what Rodriguez's original opinion or idea was, what he later starts to believe, and what events in his life led him to change his perspective.

Essay Topic 3

Part One: What does Rodriguez argue about affirmative action? Explain his argument thoroughly and give specific examples that he uses to support his argument.

Part Two: Do you agree with his arguments? Why or why not? Provide your own examples to support your argument.

(see the answer keys)

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