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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. With whom does the woman share news of trouble in her marriage before the family leaves for the road trip?

2. Manuela originally asks the woman to help her prevent her daughters from what fate?

3. After the man and woman are finished with their language project, the man takes on a project about what Native tribe?

4. Which member of the family ends up with the warrior name of Memphis?

5. In answer to the boy's query, the woman says that "documenting just means to collect the present for" (102) what?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Discuss one of the quotes Luiselli uses as an epigraph within Part I: Soundscapes and how its themes are reflected within the first few passages of the novel.

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

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

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

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

7. Describe an instance when the girl's vivacious personality influences the rest of the family's behavior.

8. What sort of text is included within the man's Box III that is not included within the woman's box?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the instances of irony within the narrative of Lost Children Archive and analyze Luiselli’s purpose for including each instance you discuss.

(see the answer keys)

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