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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 Ana asks Joaquin if he will tell Maya and Grace about his psychiatric episode, what is his reply?

2. What does Joaquin feel that he always has to say when people start speaking to him in Spanish?

3. When the reader first meets Joaquin, for how long has he lived with his current foster parents, Mark and Linda?

4. What is NOT an aspect of Ana's office that Joaquin finds too alarming to be borne?

5. When Maya asks Grace what it is like to be an only child, what is Grace's response?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Grace spend homecoming night of her junior year, and how does the night differ from her previous expectations?

2. What does Grace whisper over and over to her unborn child and how does the detail depict the novel's themes of guilt and responsibility?

3. Discuss an instance when Joaquin experiences self-loathing.

4. How does the father of Grace's daughter spend the night of the homecoming dance?

5. Discuss an instance when Grace displays self-loathing.

6. How does Joaquin respond to the teacher's aide's request of him at Christmastime?

7. What does Janie's purse symbolize upon Grace's return to high school?

8. What two aspects of Maya's own identity does she think about during her long sleepless night after meeting Joaquin?

9. What is the origin of Peach's nickname?

10. What favor does the teacher's aide for Joaquin's class ask Joaquin to do around Christmastime?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the theme of family bonds within the novel. What is the author's message regarding family bonds and how do you know?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss how and why the author instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of Far From the Tree.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author's choice to tell the story of Far From the Tree using the third-person omniscient point of view Also discuss the author's choice to switch back and forth among the perspectives of Grace, Maya, and Joaquin. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what is the author's intended effect on the reader?

(see the answer keys)

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