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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. While the camp is having a party, who comes to encourage the workers to strike?

2. On the morning after the strike, what does Esperanza see hanging from a tree?

3. What does Esperanza do to earn money once she is the only one in her family working?

4. What special dessert is Isabel's mother is making on Saturday night?

5. What is one of the dishes that the families have on this first dinner together?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Miguel's attitude toward his job being taken away differ from Esperanza's position about this injustice?

2. When Esperanza helps Marta after the immigration sweep, what is it about Marta that wins over Esperanza?

3. How does the sequence of events from Miguel and Esperanza's argument, to her money missing work to cast suspicion on Miguel as the thief?

4. In what way could one see that there is even a subtle class system inherent among migrant workers?

5. When the doctor comes to examine Mama and diagnose her illness, how does Esperanza react?

6. How does Esperanza's babysitting skills progress as Chapter 8 develops?

7. How is the act of Esperanza's gift of the porcelain doll symbolic?

8. In what way is Mama's illness a commentary on the working conditions of the migrant workers?

9. As Miguel and Esperanza drive to the market, what does Esperanza notice, apparently for the first time about herself?

10. In Chapter 9, before Mama is in the hospital, how does the reader see that her illness affects all?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How might the concept of family be part of a theme of Esperanza Rising?

Essay Topic 2

In what way is Esperanza Rising a work of socially responsible historical fiction?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the novel, the female characters are crocheting lace, teaching crocheting, giving crocheted gifts. Sometimes it is the actual crocheted article that is important; at other times, the activity itself is emphasized. What might crocheting symbolize, or come to symbolize, to the women of El Rancho de las Rosas?

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