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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. Who is standing at the front door holding boxes and bags of new clothes?

2. Darius believes that one cloud looks like __________?

3. Who has too many kids?

4. What does Esperanza’s name mean in English?

5. What happens at the end of their discussion?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Esperanza not afraid of the people in her neighborhood?

2. Why is everyone surprised by Darius’s observations of the clouds?

3. Why doesn’t Esperanza like her name?

4. Why does Esperanza want to eat in the canteen?

5. What does she mean by: “That is how it goes and goes”?

6. What does Esperanza get in this chapter that she’s been wanting?

7. Why does Esperanza think others think the people in her neighborhood are dangerous?

8. Why does Esperanza thinks that she is speaking with authority?

9. What do the girls believe hips are good for?

10. Why does Esperanza write: “here there is too much sadness and not enough sky” (p.33)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In many of the vignettes, Esperanza is spoken down to or mistreated because of how poor her family is and her Hispanic ethnicity. How does she respond to the condescension? Does she understand it is happening? If so, what actions of her are indicative of this?

Essay Topic 2

Esperanza is very much a product of her environment, as many characters are in this book. How have environmental factors affected the characters? How does Esperanza want to change this?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one of the characters in the book and examine his/her real life. How does the author represent him/her in the novel? Is this an accurate representation of the character?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 655 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample