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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 is one thing Nam does to try to break his writer’s block?

2. What does Jamie’s mother do to the seagull after Jamie is unable to kill it?

3. How old is Ron in Cartagena?

4. What does Nam find his father has done to his story by the river?

5. Which former member of the group does the narrator of Cartagena say he does not wish to think about when reflecting on other missing members?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why are Carlos and Salesio missing from Ron’s gallada as explained at the start of “Cartagena”?

2. Who is Jason Apelman and what was his relationship to Olivia?

3. What does Alison tell Jamie her relationship with Dory is like when they are alone on the pier after the party?

4. After Nam interviews his father and rewrites his story, what does his father do with his story when he takes it outside?

5. What does Jamie’s mother tell him he should talk to John Thompson about?

6. How does Ron know Hernando, and what ultimately forces Hernando to leave his life of crime behind?

7. How did Ron get involved with El Padre?

8. How do Jamie’s parents stop the fight between Jamie and Dory?

9. What does El Padre tell Ron happened to Hernando after he failed to assassinate him?

10. Who is Alison Fischer and what is her relationship with Jamie?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Father / child relationships are a recurrent theme in Nam Le’s The Boat. Choose two stories from The Boat and compare and contrast the father / child relationships represented in the two stories.

Essay Topic 2

Choose two stories from The Boat and write an essay analyzing the theme of loneliness in the text.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing Sarah and Parvin’s relationship and how the changes in their relationship help to develop the overall theme of the story. Be sure to include direct examples from the text.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 670 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample