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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. The man and the woman had first met while working on a project involving which of the five senses?

2. The woman's story about her parents traveling to India revolves around what object?

3. The family expects a "godforsaken little town" (82) and are surprised by the reality when they arrive in what city?

4. The family is pulled over for what kind of traffic violation at one point early in their road trip?

5. The woman recalls attending a vigil outside of what kind of establishment a few months before the road trip?

Short Essay Questions

1. While the woman does not keep a journal, she uses what other method that she believes serves the same purpose?

2. How does the man reply when the boy asks him why he has chosen the Apache tribe as the subject of his newest project?

3. For what purpose does the family plan to travel to Lawton?

4. What object does the woman collect during the trip and keep inside her boot for the remainder of the trip and why?

5. What do the boy and girl call child refugees and what is the woman's reaction to their choice?

6. How does the woman define documentation for the boy?

7. When the woman is conflicted about whether to record the sounds of the family's road trip, what does she say she wishes she could do instead?

8. In what way does Luiselli use the traditional notion of the American Dream to comment on the reasons refugees from the Northern Triangle leave their homes?

9. How is the road trip from New York to Arizona a symbol of the family's imminent separation?

10. What "superstitious impulse" (68) is the woman always unable to resist?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How are the topics of romantic relationships, love, and sex treated within the novel Lost Children Archive and how does their treatment relate to the novel's depicted messages?

Essay Topic 2

Explicate the theme of courage within Lost Children Archive. What is Luiselli’s message regarding courage and how do you know?

Essay Topic 3

Sensory details are used frequently by Luiselli in order to create vivid pictures of each character's progression through the narrative of Lost Children Archive. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used serve Luiselli’s creation of vivid characters to populate the narrative.

(see the answer keys)

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