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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. Why does the modern novelist rarely choose the worker as his protagonist?

2. To follow Paz's previous argument, what is the result when one Mexican confides in another?

3. What contributes to the power of the word, chingar, and all of its derivations?

4. Which of the following powers does the saying "I am your father" hold? (Chapter Four, page 80).

5. In Paz's estimation, what vital word has the Mexican forgotten?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is dissimulation? How does it compare to lying? How does it affect the Mexican's idea of himself?

2. How does North American culture view the pachuco? Does the pachuco accept or reject that culture's perception of him?

3. How is the modern murderer different from a murderer of the past? How has modernity contributed to that difference?

4. What is the origin of the pachuco? How does that characterization prepare the reader for the rest of the book?

5. What group of people did the author have in mind as he wrote the book? How and why did those people become important to him?

6. What is the world of terrorism like? How is it different from the past world of conquest and war?

7. Who is the Virgin of Guadalupe? How is she an important part of Mexican identity?

8. What were Paz's impressions of the United States? How does that contrast with the literature being written? In your mind, what accounts for the discrepancy?

9. What is the modern view of death? How is it dramatically different from the Aztec view?

10. What is the Mexican's ideal of manliness? How does it affect his interactions with other people?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the organization of the book. How is the material organized? What are the chapter titles? Do the titles prepare you for the material presented?

Essay Topic 2

What inspired the author to write this book? What questions did he hope to answer, and did he answer them satisfactorily?

Essay Topic 3

"Man is alone everywhere. But the solitude of the Mexican, under the great stone night of the high plateau that is still inhabited by insatiable gods, is very different from that of the North American, who wanders in an abstract world of machines, fellow citizens and moral precepts" (Chapter One, pg 20). What does that mean? Is it true?

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