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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 instrument does Ignacio's mother play?

2. What does Reina offer to La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre in prayer?

3. How far does Ignacio have to carry his wife's body to the nearest town?

4. Which of the following characters works as a prostitute to make a living?

5. What bird does Pepin bring into Reina's hospital room hoping it will sniff out the evil there?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Reina visit La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre?

2. Why does the marriage between Dulce and Abelardo eventually fall apart?

3. What theory does Pepin Beltrán have about Reina's insomnia?

4. How does Constancia react to Reina's theories about their father killing their mother?

5. What answers does Ignacio finally give to the readers as to his motivations in killing Blanca and lying to his daughters?

6. How does Constancia Cruz feel about her job at the cosmetics store?

7. What memory haunts Reina in regards to her mother's death and visiting her at the funeral home?

8. How does Silvestre react to seeing Gonzalo in the hospital?

9. How does Reina adjust to living with Constancia?

10. What is the incident that occurs in 1914 that Ignacio claims changed his father?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Cuban revolution plays a small role in the background of the novel. How does the Cuban Revolution affect the main characters, the Aguero sisters, during the course of this novel? What symbolic importance does the war have on what is happening in the sisters' lives? Why might Cristina Garcia have chosen to include it in the novel?

Essay Topic 2

For three generations, men have been impossibly attracted to the Aguero women - from Blanca to Reina to Dulce. Compare/contrast the way that each of these women used their attractiveness to better their own lives, and the relationships that each of these women had with the men who admired them.

Essay Topic 3

There are many theories in the novel as to why Ignacio decided to kill his wife, Blanca. Explain what the various theories about his motivations in the swamp were, and support each theory with the evidence given as to Ignacio's time in the Zapatos Swamp on the fateful night in which Blanca died.

(see the answer keys)

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