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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 did Mysty say she was more interested in having than a boyfriend?

2. What would Mysty rather die than admit to having according to the narrator?

3. Where did Alex's mother go every week to shop?

4. Where would Mysty often pick the narrator up to bring him to Alex's?

5. What does the narrator say was Mysty's "protective screen" (9)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What part of Alex's past does the narrator attribute to his playing down his wealth while at Brown?

2. Unlike Alex, who wanted to change everyone with his art, what was the narrator's ambition?

3. How do Mysty and the narrator's mother react when he suggests he may take a semester off to stay in the D.R.?

4. What did Alex do when a farmer in Bani found an unexploded bomb on his farm?

5. Why did the narrator think Mysty and Alex may have been more than friends at some point?

6. Where did Mysty dream of moving one day? What did she plan to do there?

7. What does the narrator think about Mysty the first time they meet? Why does Mysty pick on the narrator?

8. Why does Alex not see his parents very often?

9. Why does Alex want to go to Haiti once La Negrura hit?

10. What does the reader learn of Mysty's backstory after he says much of his memory of her was lost after the Fall?

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

Away from the main character examine the way the author uses the other characters in the story. When does he introduce and take them away from the story? What effect does it have on the story?

(see the answer keys)

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