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. When Pop reaches Miss Garcia's classroom, he fixates on what sight?

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

3. Deja muses at one point that "History is alive. Especially if there's" (100) what?

4. When insisting that Deja comply with his wishes, Pop insists that until she is 18, Deja is what?

5. What does Sabeen do when Ben tells Deja and Sabeen to close their eyes before the plane hits the South Tower in the video?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What is the symbolism of the Avalon Family Shelter's pancakes?

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

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

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

6. 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?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze the interplay between the resolution of Jewell Parker Rhodes's novel Towers Falling and one of the novel's main messages. How does the author make connections between these elements and how does their juxtaposition help the author get across one main message of the novel?

Essay Topic 2

Look carefully at the passages of the novel that describe the close relationship among Deja, Ben, and Sabeen. What is the author's purpose for discussing at length the nature of the connection among these three friends?

Essay Topic 3

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

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,200 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample