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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. Where does Rodriguez feel comfortable? Why?

2. What does Rodriguez have to face in order to write the book?

3. Now that he is a teacher, what does Rodriguez blame white students for?

4. What is Rodriguez's complexion like?

5. What is the Third World Student Movement?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Rodriguez overcome his attitudes about dark skin? Give two specific examples.

2. Rodriguez looks at the students of the 1960s and 1970s from a teacher's perspective. What does he see as the difference between them?

3. How does Rodriguez feel about writing? How does he feel about writing about his family? How has he handled it in the past? How is he handling it now?

4. As a teacher, how does Rodriguez interact with these other minority students? Why does he act that way?

5. How does Rodriguez describe his mother's interaction with the public world? Give specific examples.

6. What does Rodriguez learn from working with the construction workers? Give two specific examples.

7. How does Rodriguez describe the change in the Catholic Church that happens as he grows up?

8. As a child, what does Rodriguez learn about dark skin?

9. What does Rodriguez's mother tell him about writing about their family? What does his editor tell him?

10. How do people respond to Rodriguez's skin color when he is younger?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Rodriguez clearly sees books as something powerful and potentially dangerous. Early on in the book, Rodriguez describes himself as being afraid to learn to read because he was aware of the power of books. Later, he describes his mother asking him what was in all those books and why he needed to read all of them. At the end of the book, he describes his nephew, who is reading, as someone who may cause trouble.

Part One: What has happened in his life to lead him to that conclusion? Give specific examples.

Part Two: Do you think other people in the book would agree with his conclusion? Why or why not? Give specific examples.

Essay Topic 2

Part One: Compare and contrast the two religions - Mexican Catholicism and English-speaking Catholicism - that Rodriguez experiences as a child.

Part Two: Which one had a more profound effect on him as he grew up?

Part Three: Does his "New Catholicism" look more like Mexican Catholicism, English-speaking Catholicism, or an equal blend of the two?

Essay Topic 3

Many books written by minority authors identify the discrimination, challenges, and disadvantages faced by people of that minority group or culture. Rodriguez does acknowledge some of those things, but for the most part, his story is remarkably positive about ethnicity. In some cases, he actually identifies his ethnicity as a benefit or an advantage.

Part One: Identify at least two places in the book where Rodriguez identifies some element of his ethnicity as an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

Part Two: As a reader, what do you think about his handling of the ethnicity issue? Is he making things sound better than they really are? Do you think other writers might make things sound worse than they really are?

Part Three: Which approach would you rather read? Do you think your opinion has anything to do with your ethnicity or your life experience?

(see the answer keys)

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