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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. In Chapter 1, where are Fabiola and her mother going?

2. What does Fabiola think when she sees Dray in Chapter 7?

3. How does her mother feel to Fabiola at the end of Chapter 12?

4. What does Fabiola resolve to do in Chapter 9?

5. What does Kasim say in Chapter 14 that surprises Fabiola?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is the woman Fabiola goes to the restaurant with in Chapter 9? What does the woman want?

2. What does Fabiola do to Pri's hair in Chapter 4? How does this make Fabiola feel?

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

4. What had Fabiola and her mother done as Fabiola says in Chapter 7 to protect the family? When had they started doing this?

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

6. Who does Fabiola ask for help in the Detroit airport in Chapter 1? What is she told?

7. What question does Fabiola ask Kasim that makes him angry in Chapter 11? Why does it?

8. What does Bad Leg tell Fabiola about his leg in Chapter 8? What does she realize about him?

9. Why does Pri say in Primadonna's Story that she goes hard for Dray? How does she justify their relationship?

10. In "Matant Jo's Story," how did Matant Jo come over to America? Who of the girls did she bring with her?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

Anger and hatred fuel actions in the novel, such as Fabiola's grudge towards Dray or fights with other women. How does the novel represent anger and hatred? What does it show about how it acts, how it impacts others, and how it feels for the person who feels it? How does individual anger relate to an anger at something larger than any person?

Start with the passage where Fabiola passes out after fighting Tonesha and Raquel (254). Then find three other examples in the novel to develop a thesis about what the novel is saying about anger and hatred, how it is felt, its role in the world, and its place in America.

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter Thirty Two, Pri asks Fabiola about her Vodou items, and Fabiola says, 'It is my life" (321). What does she mean by this? How is this idea shown throughout the novel? How is Vodou, and its philosophy, make up Fabiola's character? Go through the novel and find at least three examples to show how Vodou is a part of Fabiola's life, and how each example shows how it is a part of her.

Wrap this into a claim: what is the novel saying about the role of spirituality?

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