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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. When the white parents consider the brown girls and their families the good, hardworking immigrants, the girls realize what about their own families?

2. In Part One, Family Parties, what is a comment NOT given by the narrator regarding the girls’ aunts?

3. How do the girls respond when the girls receive compliments from the Italian boys on their stoops?

4. When the white boys try to be gently intimate, how do the girls NOT react?

5. When the girls meet the white boys’ parents, they suddenly become what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why might the narrator repeat that the homes the girls live in are neat but hidden, peripheral?

2. How does the narrator describe the various skin tones of the brown girls?

3. How do the girls change once they begin attending the high school for the arts?

4. How does life change for the girls who attend the public arts school?

5. In Mothers’ Commandments, what are the Commandments listed by the narrator?

6. What takes place in Night?

7. In Brown Boys, how does the narrator describe the different sides of Prospect Park?

8. In Your Own Kind, what are the reasons are given for why the girls should not date outside of their own community?

9. How do the girls respond when asked what they want to be when they grow up?

10. How does the narrator describe the boys in Brown Boys?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Like the brown girls in Brown Girls, Daphne Palasi Andreades is from Queens, New York and a brown girl herself. How does this aid the reader in believing the narrator and author are one and the same? What other details from the book suggest that the author is the narrator and the book is autobiographical? Why might the details of this story be important for the author to share about her own life?

Essay Topic 2

When some of the brown girls go off to college, they feel significantly out of place. Why do they feel this way? What aspects of college make it feel like a negative experience to be someplace very different from home? Can you relate to this? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Racism and prejudice is an important theme in Brown Girls. What are two examples of racism or other prejudice in this novel? Is this surprising to you? Why or why not? How does this affect you? How does this theme permeate the entire novel?

(see the answer keys)

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