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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. When Sabeen's father tells Deja that she would be a good Muslim, she replies that she just wants to be what?

2. How does Pop reply when Deja tells him she does not want to leave her school?

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

4. Deja thinks that maybe seeing where the Twin Towers had stood will help her family do what?

5. Deja muses that if she let them, lots of people would make her feel like a what?

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

3. What is the significance of Deja leading her father through the streets of New York City?

4. How is the theme of guilt brought up within the dinner at Sabeen's house?

5. During Deja's father's visit to her school, what does he discover about Deja's teacher Miss Garcia?

6. What is Deja's reason for feeling that she must skip school in order to visit the 9/11 Memorial on a weekday?

7. For what reason does Deja keep from her father the fact that she has watched a video of a plane flying into one of the Twin Towers on 9/11?

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

9. What major realization does Deja have at the end of the day when Pop visits her school?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Jewell Parker Rhodes's novel Towers Falling. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the book.

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Determine the author's message regarding the idea that secrecy is dangerous within a family unit.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,102 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample