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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 boy discovers that a Polaroid picture will not develop properly in the light, what object does he use to protect his photos?

2. How many archiving boxes does the family take with them on their road trip?

3. How old is the girl upon the narrative's opening?

4. On the way to Lawton, the man and woman promise the boy and girl a visit to what location?

5. Which member of the family gets the greatest number of allocated boxes for the trip?

Short Essay Questions

1. While the man wants the road trip to end in Arizona, the woman wants to visit what state so that she can pursue her own next project?

2. Describe the differences between the man's sound work and the woman's sound work.

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

4. What prompts the woman to begin to record the man's Apache stories as he tells them?

5. What quality does the woman say is difficult to maintain within a marriage in a "real and sustained" (82) manner?

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

7. 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?

8. Describe the circumstances that led to the formation of the family at the center of Lost Children Archive.

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

10. How does the woman react to hearing the radio interview with the boy being held in a Texas detention center?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss how and why Luiselli instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of Lost Children Archive.

Essay Topic 3

Look carefully at the passages of Lost Children Archive that describe the close relationship between the boy and the girl at the center of the text. What is Luiselli’s purpose for discussing at length the nature of the connection between the boy and the girl?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,217 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample