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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 do Sabeen and Deja do after dinner while the adults talk?

2. Deja compares Mr. Schmidt to which Star Wars character?

3. In what class does Deja learn about the creation of the Twin Towers?

4. How many minutes after the North Tower was hit by a plane was the South Tower hit by a second plane?

5. What does Deja decide her mother needs above all else?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the symbolism of mourning doves within the narrative?

2. How does Sabeen's father comfort Deja during her visit to their home?

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

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

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

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

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

8. What does the baklava symbolize within the narrative when Deja gives a container of it to a homeless man?

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

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

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

What is the author's message regarding patriotism in Jewell Parker Rhodes's novel Towers Falling and what themes does the author employ in order to send these messages to the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Trace the characterization arc of Deja's character throughout the novel. Discuss whether she is a round or flat character and whether she is a static or dynamic character.

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