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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. In response to Lito's claim that Isabel is giving up her Cuban identity by leaving, Isabel's mother tells him that "Miami is just" (102) what?

2. What shared characteristic had bonded the Soviet Union to Cuba prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union?

3. What is the age difference between Isabel and Ivan?

4. Isabel's grandfather Lito makes her angry on the boat by telling her that her father is a what?

5. What do Mahmoud and his brother Waleed do when they see two boys robbing another boy of a loaf of bread?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Josef feel about invisibility?

2. Of everyone in Mahmoud's family, who comes the closest to losing his or her life when the apartment is hit by a missile?

3. What are the only items that Isabel and the other passengers on the tiny boat have room to bring with them on the journey to Florida from Cuba?

4. List some of Isabel's and the other boat passengers' expectations of what life will be like in America.

5. What happens the first two times Isabel's father tries to journey to America from Cuba?

6. How is Isabel's kitten used by the author to send a message about hunger and fear?

7. What is ironic about Josef's feelings following his bar mitzvah?

8. What is the clave?

9. How does the author go about portraying Mahmoud as an empathetic soul?

10. What U.S. policies change and make it harder for Cuban people to seek refuge in the United States?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do the themes of deception and secrecy function within the novel and what is the author's message regarding these themes?

Essay Topic 2

Choose three major symbols within the narrative and discuss in an essay the connections between these three symbols and three major themes present within the novel.

Essay Topic 3

Analyze the interplay between the resolution of the novel and one of the novel's main messages. How does the author make connections between these elements and how does their juxtaposition help the author get across one main message of the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,197 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample