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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through The Day of the Dead.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Paz's opinion about the physical features distinguishing Mexicans from North Americans?
(a) They are more important than commonly believed.
(b) People do not understand their significance.
(c) They are not as important as commonly believed.
(d) People are too distracted by them.

2. Other than solitude, what does the Mexican often feel in relation to other peoples?
(a) Intellectualism.
(b) Weakness.
(c) Complete isolation.
(d) Inferiority.

3. How does a man become "like the angels" (Chapter Three, page 61)?
(a) By valuing life to its final moment.
(b) By opening fully to death, as well as to life.
(c) By running from death to an embracement of life.
(d) By entrusting everything to God.

4. From what does a fiesta free the Mexican, in Paz's understanding?
(a) The sense of unfulfilled desires.
(b) The drudgery of common living.
(c) The explosive desires he carries in his heart.
(d) The horror of human thought.

5. What is the difference between the Mexican killer and the modern one?
(a) The Mexican kills as an expression of love.
(b) Only the Mexican killer expresses true hatred.
(c) The Mexican obliterates an object, not a man.
(d) The Mexican kills a man, not an object.

Short Answer Questions

1. When does the pachuco become his true self?

2. Why are a woman's instincts those of a species rather than her own?

3. What happens when the Mexican dissimulates?

4. Why are woman considered inferior people?

5. According to Paz, why does the liar tell lies to himself?

(see the answer key)

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