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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. According to Paz, what is the Mexican's relationship with his fellow man?

2. Aside from being an excess, what does the fiesta revolt against?

3. Paz states that a Mexican utters the words that are considered most evil when which of the following occurs?

4. Through dissimulation, what does a Mexican attempt to do?

5. From what does a fiesta free the Mexican, in Paz's understanding?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the character of the Mexican's solitude? How does it differ from the solitude of the North American?

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

3. How do Mexicans view their bodies? How does their view contribute to their wish for privacy?

4. What is left of the colonial world? Are those remnants the best or the worst parts that could be left behind?

5. In Chapter Three, the following idea is presented: "There is nothing so joyous as a Mexican fiesta, but there is also nothing so sorrowful. Fiesta night is also a night of mourning" (Chapter 3, page 53). What does that mean?

6. How important are fiestas in Mexican culture? What relationship exists between the fiesta and the individual?

7. Who represents the conflict that Mexicans have not been able to solve? What effect does that conflict have on their culture?

8. Who is the Chingada? What relation does she hold to every Mexican, whether male or female?

9. 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?

10. In the author's parable, who is Nobody? Is it possible for Nobody to break the progression of his existence? Why or why not?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are the gender roles explained throughout the book? Given the culture and the time, what are the gender expectations? Who acts against those expectations?

Essay Topic 2

What dualities did Sor Juana represent (philosophical, religious, gender-based)? What lasting influence did she have?

Essay Topic 3

What connections exist between love and solitude? What dangers exist within them? How does the Mexican break through the bonds of both? Clearly address and explain Paz's arguments, especially toward the end of the book.

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