View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the narrator doing when "the world came to an end" (1)?

2. What strange thing happened to all infected individuals 8 months after the disease began?

3. What rumors began to spread about infected people?

4. How does Diaz describe the way in which the infection spread?

5. Who picks the narrator up from the airport when he first arrives in the Dominican for the summer?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the narrator react when he first heard of La Negrura? What was he more occupied with at the time?

2. Why did interest in La Negrura wane fairly soon after the initial infection?

3. What are some the strange behaviors the infected displayed months after the initial outbreak?

4. Who is Alex? How does he know the narrator? In what ways are they different?

5. How did people first react to La Negrura, according to the narrator at the start of the story?

6. Why was it easy to blame the heat on the outbreak of La Negrura?

7. Why did the narrator's mother initially come back to the Dominican Republic after living in Brooklyn?

8. What did Alex tell his friends when he introduced them to the narrator? How did his friends react when the narrator told them what he was hoping to become?

9. Is the narrator being honest when he says his mother did not really want him around her when she was sick? Explain.

10. How did the narrator's mother and aunt feel about the situation in Haiti?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay analyzing the symbolic significance the narrator's family's economic status has on the story. Why is this important and how does it develop the themes of the story? What would be different if his family were wealthy? Use examples from the text to support your viewpoint.

Essay Topic 2

Examine the use of dialogue vs the use of description. Look at how each is used in the story and what makes these uses effective or ineffective.

Essay Topic 3

"Monstro" takes place in an unspecified time in the future. What details indicate the timeframe? When do you think the story takes place? Why do you think the author did not specify the exact time?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 752 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample