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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. Which of the following is among the books Asma gives the narrator?

2. What color hijab does Ramla Awan wear?

3. How much money does Sikander lose at baccarat in Atlantic City?

4. Of which of the following did the Akhtars have framed photos from travel?

5. Of which of the following did the Akhtars have framed photos from travel?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what properties does Sikander invest when he tries to break into real estate?

2. What conspiracies does the narrator note hearing voiced while visiting family in Abbottabad in 2008?

3. What, other than seeing Latif, does the narrator note softened his mother’s demeanor?

4. What does the narrator report valuing in Whitman when he read him initially (xvii)?

5. Aside from medical appointments, what contact does Sikander have with Trump?

6. What message does the narrator note is sent by the United States turning against Afghanistan and Iraq in the late 1980s and early 1990s?

7. To what causes does the narrator ascribe the British decision to afford India and Pakistan independence?

8. What reasons does the narrator give for wanting to avoid a detailed account of his father’s infatuation with Trump?

9. What does the narrator note was necessary for him to understand the comments Moroni makes in her class and her letter (xvi-xvii)?

10. What parallels does the narrator draw between his father and Trump when initially discussing their first meeting?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the comment that “America had begun as a colony and that a colony it remained, that is, a place still defined by its plunder, where enrichment was paramount and civil order always an afterthought” (xiii). Is the definition of “colony” presented in the comment accurate? What in the novel and in experience indicates that it is / not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the quote from Montaigne’s “Of Experience” the narrator presents: “I take it for true that dreams are honest reflections of our inclinations; but there is art to making sense of them” (104). What is meant by the quote? What from the narrator indicates that meaning? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

In the end, who is the protagonist of the novel—that is, who is the novel really about, Ayad or Sikander? What in the text tells you so? How does it do so?

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