View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What happens when a person says "at this moment"? (Chapter Nine, page 209).
(a) He isolates that moment from the flow of time.
(b) He briefly stops time.
(c) He does not understand the moment in which he is living.
(d) The moment is already passed.

2. Which of the following powers does the saying "I am your father" hold? (Chapter Four, page 80).
(a) The power of the closed person, the aggressor.
(b) The power of the justified and privileged person.
(c) The subtle power of the seemingly weaker person.
(d) The power of the Creator.

3. Why did the sense of Mexicanism "float" in the air of Los Angeles?
(a) No one truly knew that it meant to be Mexican.
(b) People struggled to retain Mexican identity in a foreign land.
(c) It was an ethereal sense of nationality.
(d) It did not mix with the North American efficiency or precision.

4. In the book's argument, what happens when a Mexican woman is passive?
(a) She embodies the ancient elements of earth, motherhood, and virginity.
(b) She comes to believe in the societal values given her.
(c) She functions as a channel of the ancient elements: Earth, motherhood, and virginity.
(d) She can no longer relate to the man.

5. What should Mexicans recognize about their alienation from the world?
(a) It is unique to their country.
(b) It can be reversed only by a charismatic leader.
(c) It is shared by many people around the world.
(d) It has managed to cut them off completely.

Short Answer Questions

1. What analogy does Paz use to explain Mexico's history?

2. According to Paz, how does a sterile society try to save itself?

3. Through dissimulation, what does a Mexican attempt to do?

4. Why does the modern novelist rarely choose the worker as his protagonist?

5. According to Paz, how does death end when a civilization denies it?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 421 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample