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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 the woman in CVS ask Fabiola in Chapter 6?

2. In Chapter 2, who are Fabiola's cousins?

3. What do Kasim and Fabiola do at the end of Chapter 9?

4. What is Shawna Stevens investigating in Chapter 9?

5. Who does Fabiola meet in CVS in Chapter 9?

Short Essay Questions

1. At the nightclub, what does Fabiola remember about the boys back home? What does she think when she meets Dray?

2. What happens with Fabiola’s paper in Chapter 12? What does Mr. Nolan offer?

3. What is the sister's nickname as said in "Princess's Story" Why are they known as this?

4. Where does Kasim take Fabiola on a date in Chapter 14? What does he say about her when she is nervous going?

5. Where do Imani and Fabiola go in Chapter 12 and what do they do there? What worries Fabiola while she is there?

6. What does Majorie say in Majorie and Valerie's Story happened after the fall of the dictator? Why did they come to America?

7. Who picks Fabiola up in Chapter 9? What do they do together?

8. What does Fabiola tell her cousins about her mother in Chapter 2? What do her cousins say?

9. What surprises Fabiola about the Detroit airport in Chapter 1? Who is she meeting?

10. How does Chantal describe her body in "Chantal's Story"? What does Fabiola make her do?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the end of the novel, Fabiola says, "I realize that everyone is climbing their own mountain here in America. They are tall and mighty and they live in hearts and everyday lives of the people. And I am not a pebble in the valley. I am a mountain" (324).

From this quote, what are the mountains in the lives of all of the characters? What is Fabiola's mountain? How do she, and each of them climb it in the novel? Choose two characters in addition to her for a four-page analysis with textual examples. Finally, what does this quote say about what it means to be American or live in America?

Essay Topic 2

Research the earthquake in Haiti. Use two sources to write about what happened. Then look at how Fabiola remembers the experience of being in the earthquake and how she relates this to the events at the end of the novel. How is the book a memory project of the events of the earthquake? How does it show a survivor of an event such as this continues to interpret their experience after it happens?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter Twenty One, Fabiola dreams of the history of 8800 American Street, and then in the next chapter the detailed history of 8800 American Street is revealed. What does this structure say about how Fabiola learns the stories revealed in the novel? Are they actually being spoken to her or does she learn them in other ways? If she learns them in other ways, what are these ways of knowing? Choose three of the backstories to develop an argument about how she knows these.

Finally, what is the novel saying by having these stories revealed in this way? What is Fabiola's role related to the other characters of the novel and to the reader?

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This section contains 900 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample