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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 Layla smell on the Director’s breath when he yells at her?

2. What instruction does Ahmed end the Author’s Note with?

3. What American motto does Layla use to describe the crowd who march to the gate to demand the camp be closed?

4. How does Layla explain her injury to her parents?

5. How is the Director assaulting Layla when Fred intervenes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the first act of open defiance that takes place in the camp?

2. What kind of gathering starts to collect outside the gates of the camp?

3. What does the Director weaponize in his second meeting with Layla in his office?

4. What does Samira Ahmed say makes her angry in the Author’s Note, and what does she say gives her hope?

5. What does Layla tell the crowd when she gets the bullhorn, and what does she say about America?

6. What are the factors that are leading the camp to a more confrontational footing?

7. In the Mess, what does the Director do that raises the stakes on his conflict with Layla?

8. How does Layla answer the harassment she faces from Saleem and Fauzi and the others on her block, at morning check-in?

9. What is the outcome of the protest Layla and her friends stage during the Red Cross visit?

10. How does Layla’s second article get out of Mobius?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Research the various internments the book references: the Japanese internment during World War II, the Nazi concentration camps, and the caging of kids at the American border that happened under President Trump. Which case most closely resembles the internment in Ahmed’s novel? Which parts of the novel reflect different cases? What parts are new to this novel?

Essay Topic 2

What is the role of Islam in Ahmed’s novel? What does it mean to different parties? What are the different types of Islam she shows us, and how do the differences affect (or not affect) the characters?

Essay Topic 3

Identify the most important plot points in Internment. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

(see the answer keys)

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