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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. After what length of time working with the Door in the immigration court cases does Luiselli begin to experience "feelings of frustration and defeat"?

2. What does Manu say about why he stopped residing with the person with whom he had lived the previous year?

3. What county does Luiselli say is guilty of denying entrance to many children based on their lack of appropriate immigration papers?

4. The Guatemalan girls in Luiselli's depiction of their interview are what ages?

5. Luiselli's students insist that what organizations in the area have to offer some kind of sustained relief for the refugee crisis?

Short Essay Questions

1. What sacrifices does Luiselli name as ones immigrants are willing to make in order to stay in the United States?

2. In what way did Luiselli make the most of her ability to facilitate conversation within her "first semester of teaching at Hofstra University"? (91)

3. What element does Luiselli identify as the factor that "fundamentally fuels drug trafficking"(85) in North America?

4. What solidified belief does Luiselli carry about the child refugees, based on her experiences screening such children at The Door?

5. Why are child refugees not entitled to "the free legal counsel that American law guarantees" (67) to so many?

6. When the Spanish Conversation class led by Luiselli renounces their name, what do they call the class instead and why is their choice significant?

7. How does the theme of sacrifice arise within the final passages of Part IV: Community?

8. Discuss the irony Luiselli finds in the determination of a so-called correct answer in the context of immigration court.

9. In what way does Luiselli depict speaking about trauma as an effective method of processing it?

10. Describe Luiselli's employment of imagery in order to get across what it feels like for immigrants once they have been in the United States for a sustained period of time.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the theme of injustice portrayed in Valeria Luiselli’s essay? Examine the author's treatment of and messages regarding injustice throughout the work.

Essay Topic 2

Examine how Valeria Luiselli’s essay invites readers to learn particular lessons from her own experiences and to apply those lessons to their own lives. How does she accomplish this goal and how does this goal relate to the overarching themes of the text?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that discusses the author's purpose for choosing to depict the juxtaposition among Mexico, the United States, and Central America within the essay.

(see the answer keys)

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