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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. What is NOT an element of Ben's physical appearance?

2. Whenever Deja asks about the contents of Pop's briefcase, what is Ma's reply?

3. Miss Garcia tells Deja that if Deja misses one more homework assignment, she will have to take what action?

4. What does Deja do during the lunch period she spends in Miss Garcia's classroom?

5. From what country does Deja say her mother hails, prompting Sabeen's excitement about adding to the cultural map in the school hallway?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of Deja's name and how do you think it will relate to coming events in the narrative?

2. In what way does Rhodes reveal Deja's family's level of poverty within her first visit to the cafeteria?

3. How does Deja discover that Ben is not close to his father?

4. What is the purpose of the author's inclusion of the Mr. Schmidt character?

5. Discuss the point of view utilized to tell the story of Towers Falling.

6. What object does Deja say is "the neatest thing in the whole room" (41) at the Avalon Family Shelter?

7. What is the effect of Miss Garcia's comment to Deja that if she comes without her homework one more time, Miss Garcia will have to meet with her parents?

8. For what reason does Deja's sympathy for Ben surprise her?

9. What does Sabeen's comment "Home is divine. Blessed by Allah" (50) demonstrate about her character?

10. What type of language does the author use in order to portray Deja, the novel's protagonist?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sensory details are used frequently by the author in order to create vivid pictures of each character's progression through the narrative. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used by the author set a particular mood for each of the three scenes.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's choice to tell the story of Jewell Parker Rhodes's novel Towers Falling using the first person point-of-view. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what is the author's intended effect on the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Analyze Jewell Parker Rhodes's novel Towers Falling from an Existential perspective. What elements of life does it suggest hold the most meaning and why?

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