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 title does Izzy give to her suggested book?

2. From what source does Sierra note Robbie acquires chalk?

3. Robbie is tattooed with an image of which of the following peoples?

4. As which of the following does the novel gloss “mujeres solitarias” (155)?

5. Which instrument does Juan play in Culebra?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Robbie note that the *material* of a shadowshaped artwork matters?

2. What does Lucera identify as the source of shadowshaping power?

3. In what condition does Sierra wake when Robbie knocks at her window after events at Club Kalfour?

4. How does Nydia describe the Sorrows when Sierra asks her about them?

5. Why does Jerome suggest the reference to the crossroads indicates the intersection of Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue?

6. What occasioned the fight between Carmen and Lázaro?

7. As they proceed towards Manny’s printing press, why does Sierra comfort Bennie?

8. How do local authorities react to the report of Manny’s death?

9. After Sierra confers with Juan about her powers, what does she read in Wick’s notes about his own struggles with shadowshaping?

10. As she and her companions proceed to Coney Island, what scenario does Sierra attempt to envision?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Chapter Twenty-eight, Juan reports a translation of a poem he has from Lázaro:
When the full moon kills the ancient sun
As the one lures the other who in turn lures the one
When the shadows swarm
Take hold in their form
And burst through the borough like a bullet from a gun

Come to the crossroads, to the crossroads come
Where the powers converge and become one
See my enemies fall
As my spirit voice calls
And the energy surges like a thousand suns

At the water-bound carnival of destiny and chance
I’m the whisper you hear as you enter the trance
When the lanterns go dead
I’ll light the path ahead
From where lonely women go to dance. (159-60)

What is the structure of the poem, and how does that structure contribute to the poem’s overall meaning?

Essay Topic 2

What attitude towards formal academic study does the novel present, and how does it show it?

Essay Topic 3

Explicate the significance of the location of the Sorrows’ center of power.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 686 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample