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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. For what two reasons does Deja decide she would not tell Ray about 9/11?

2. What revelation does Pop make to Deja about Miss Garcia after he spends the day at her school?

3. What food does Deja eat at Sabeen's that she thoroughly enjoys and had never eaten before then?

4. How many of the terrorists responsible for 9/11 were from Egypt?

5. How many people died building the Twin Towers?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is demonstrated about Deja's character arc when she says, "I feel like I've passed the biggest test. Just by being me" (114)?

2. How is the novel's motif of sound depicted within the scene when Deja watches the video of a plane hitting the first Twin Tower?

3. How does Deja process the sight of people falling and leaping out of the windows of the Twin Towers on 9/11?

4. How does Deja feel about her father's mysterious illness?

5. What is the connection between Pop's briefcase and Deja's realization that "Pop survived 9/11" (146)?

6. What are Deja's ideas about what each member of her family needs in order to be happy?

7. How does being friends with Sabeen and Ben change Deja's negative outlook on her own life?

8. What are Sabeen's experiences with racism and Islamophobia?

9. What is the significance of Deja's realization that "History is alive" (101)?

10. How is Deja's open-minded nature depicted within her visit to Sabeen's house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's messages about guilt and responsibility within Jewell Parker Rhodes's novel Towers Falling.

Essay Topic 2

How might Towers Falling be classified as a coming-of-age story?

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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