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. How does Crispin Robles recruit men to fight with him?

2. What does the leader of the Federal soldiers expect will be the result of the attack by Demetrio Macias?

3. What does Pancracio do to Luis Cervantes when he approaches the camp?

4. What do Demetrio Macias' men plan to do if they outnumber the Federal soldiers?

5. Why does Demetrio Macias send his wife away?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Luis Cervantes insist that the band should do when he learns that Huerta is preparing a final defense in Zacatecas?

2. How is Luis Cervantes greeted when he first comes to the rebel camp?

3. Describe the leader of the Federal soldiers.

4. Why does Luis Cervantes say he has come to join Demetrio Macias?

5. How does the author describe the Sierra?

6. What kind of atmosphere is created as the rebels loot bodies of the soldiers they have killed?

7. How does Crispin Robles recruit men to fight for the cause?

8. How does Luis Cervantes react when Camila tells him that Demetrio Macias has been flirting with her?

9. How were Demetrio Macias and his men able to get the drop on the Federal soldiers in the barracks?

10. Why does Luis Cervantes think that Demetrio Macias has run into the hills?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Margarito's self-hatred explodes when he shoots his own image in the mirror, and then later when he actually commits suicide. Are there other instances of foreshadowing in this story, when the conclusion of events is presaged by a symbolic or similar event? In your essay, show examples of foreshadowing in the plot of this story.

Essay Topic 2

How did Azuela acquire his knowledge about the revolution? Was he a primary or a secondary source of information, and what difference does it make? In your essay, take a position for or against the importance of first-hand knowledge in writing historical fiction.

Essay Topic 3

The tone of a story is the author's attitude toward his characters and the situations about which he writes. Discuss the tone of this story. How do you think Azuela felt about the people he wrote about?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 850 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample