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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. How did Ayah punish Chato for teaching her English and failing to keep her kids from being taken away?

2. What does Jimmie's Navajo name mean?

3. At the beginning of the story, where is Ayah sitting?

4. What is trapped in Ayah's hair as she moves through the bar?

5. What does the wet wool smell of her blanket remind Ayah of?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is significant about Chato in his drunken state, telling Ayah, "You know they can't run that ranch without me"?

2. Why does Silko make a point of stating that the white doctors came before they hire Navajo women to go with them as interpreters?

3. Why was the walk back to the bar a "hard walk" for Ayah?

4. What is the significance of the doctors returning the next day with a police officer?

5. Why did the men in the bar remind Ayah of the first time white people brought Danny and Ella back?

6. Why does Ayah hate the information that Chato told her it was the old woman who died in the winter that gave the children a disease?

7. What is the significance of Ayah offering half her blanket to Chato as they walk down the road?

8. What is the irony of Ayah having to search for Chato in the present when she spent so many years distancing herself from him?

9. What does Silko mean when she says that Ayah's life becomes memories?

10. Ayah states she is frightened by how the doctors look at the children, like lizards watching flies. Why does this metaphor drive home the predator and prey motif?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ayah feels that she doesn't know Chato, that they become strangers. In what ways does the theme of alienation play out in the story? Use fact details from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Why does Silko end Ayah's and Chato's lives in the manner she does? Do you find this method effective ending? Why or why not? Use fact details from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Chato spends much of their monthly welfare check on alcohol. Why does he do this? Why does Ayah believe he does this? How does this issue of shame play out in Chato's other actions? Use fact details from the text to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

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