View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following contributed to making colonialism alive and relevant?

2. Why did the Spaniards not exterminate the Indians after they were conquered?

3. On what does Paz blame "the rather zigzag progress of the state"? Chapter Eight, page 181).

4. What metaphor does Paz use to describe Mexico taking control from Spain?

5. What was the Mexican intellectual's goal?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who was Sor Juana? Why was she an unusual person both in South America and in old Spain?

2. What did Article 3 of the new Constitution mandate? What troubles did that Article cause?

3. Mexico has entered a new phase of thinking and history. How does Paz explain that phase?

4. How does Paz define "Mexicanism"? How does it mesh with the individual whom he had described earlier?

5. Paz asserts that every revolution attempts to restore the order that an oppressor has twisted or disregarded altogether. How was that true in Mexico?

6. Why could Mexico not have progressed as far as she has today if she were working within capitalism?

7. What happened when Spanish America separated itself from Spain? Given what Paz has stated throughout the book about that moment in history, draw your own conclusions about why that happened.

8. What is the role of the Mexican intelligentsia within society? How does it differ from the function of the intelligentsia within the United States and Europe; and which one is a better role?

9. What does Paz think of the Soviet Union? How does it compare to Mexico?

10. What role did Jose Vasconcelos play in modern education? From Paz's descriptions, what is his opinion of Vasconcelos?

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

Essay Topic 3

Use this quote as the foundation for your essay: "We have been expelled from the center of the world, and are condemned to search for it through jungles and deserts or in the underground mazes of the labyrinth.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,777 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample