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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 is NOT one of the water tanks the boy plans to pass along his planned route to a particular canyon?

2. What word spoken by the girl does the boy use as an example of the girl's intermittent brilliance?

3. What term does the boy use to describe the things he had "invented and perfected way before" (204) the family's road trip?

4. At what kind of establishment has the family stopped when they hear about the imminent deportation of children?

5. What two items does the boy retrieve from the glove compartment of the family car on the night he sneaks out to get a book?

Short Essay Questions

1. What bright spot does the boy say will remain in the situation even if the man and woman never find the two of them?

2. How does the boy answer the woman's queries about the procedures he would follow if he and the girl ever became lost? What is the woman's reaction to the boy's answer?

3. How does the fictional author of Elegies for Lost Children demonstrate the way in which the "man in charge" (164) despises being asked questions?

4. How does the boy plan to find the way to the town of Lordsburg and what does he plan to do once he and the girl reach Lordsburg?

5. What event causes the woman to question the boy about what he would do if he and the girl ever got lost while on their own?

6. What clues does the boy leave for the man and woman in regard to his and the girl's plans?

7. Which section of the fifth elegy causes the woman to stop reading to the boy?

8. What does the airplane symbolize within the Virginia Woolf epigraph at the start of Family Soundscapes: "Box IV"?

9. What major change in narration takes place at the start of the part called Reenactment?

10. For what length of time has the family been driving when the boy asks the woman to play a David Bowie song in the car?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a critical essay about Lost Children Archive while using the critical power theory lens of Marxist theory. Use textual evidence to back up your strong, specific claim regarding the novel's treatment of issues such as socioeconomic status, hierarchies, wealth, class, or any other issues related to Marxist theory that can be found in the novel.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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

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