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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. As the brown girls see first-hand the devastation caused by the colonizers, what do they realize?

2. How do the brown girls’ classmates respond when they are asked why they chose boarding schools over local schools?

3. What is the first step the girls take that leads to them taking a trip to visit the Motherland (Fatherland)?

4. The girls tell happy stories of their youth with Trish, but one girl thinks back on the time she caught Trish doing what at a party?

5. What do the girls now know about The Flea, after visiting Motherlands?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does “Meanwhile, in Queens” begin?

2. What are the problems the girls who leave and the girls who stay see in each other?

3. When the brown girls meet up in Reunion, what are their mutual complaints about college?

4. How does one of the girls realize that Trish had not been happy in a long time?

5. What seems to have led to Trish’s fatal car accident?

6. How do the various family members react to the brothers receiving prison sentences?

7. How do the girls stand out as Americans while in the Motherland?

8. What does the narrator say the girls bring home from the Motherland?

9. How are the girls changed by their visits to the Motherland?

10. Why are the brothers in Our Brothers sent to prison?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Queens has changed since the brown girls were little. How has it changed? What do the girls think about these changes? What do these changes reveal about the locals, as well as those in high positions in local and federal government?

Essay Topic 2

In Part Five, some of the brown girls manage to travel abroad to their motherlands. What are the girls' experiences like? Are they surprised by this? Are you, as the reader, surprised? Why or why not? If you were one of these girls, would you have taken this trip? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Racism and prejudice is an important theme in Brown Girls. What are two examples of racism or other prejudice in this novel? Is this surprising to you? Why or why not? How does this affect you? How does this theme permeate the entire novel?

(see the answer keys)

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