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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 auto repair company does the narrator use to have his car fixed?

2. To which name does the narrator report his uncle Shafat changes his own?

3. Which of the following medications does the narrator’s mother use to ease the pain of her terminal cancer?

4. What make and model of car does the narrator report having break down on him?

5. Where does the narrator report wanting to give blood on 11 September 2001?

Short Essay Questions

1. What comments does the narrator claim to expect to receive from his parents after leaving the repair shop in Scranton?

2. What reasons does Moroni give to mistrust Freud? What reasons does she note to trust him?

3. What features does the narrator initially ascribe to Rind that mark him as Pakistani, rather than Indian?

4. What decorations are on the walls of the repair shop in Scranton?

5. What is the dream technique the narrator reports having learned from Moroni?

6. Why does the university dean on Rind’s foundation board oppose the narrator joining said board?

7. What factors does the narrator cite as having broken him out of his wealth-induced laziness and indulgence?

8. Why does the narrator report being initially put at ease by the Pennsylvania state trooper who pulls him over?

9. What does the narrator report as shocking in his review of the transcripts of proceedings against Rind’s investment company?

10. How does the narrator describe Mariam Meriha (137)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider Sikander’s comment about “The whole Muslim world. Expecting failure, so failure they get” (29). What does the comment mean? Is that meaning correct? What in the novel and in experience suggests that it is or is not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the comment that “America had begun as a colony and that a colony it remained, that is, a place still defined by its plunder, where enrichment was paramount and civil order always an afterthought” (xiii). Is the definition of “colony” presented in the comment accurate? What in the novel and in experience indicates that it is / not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

In the end, who is the protagonist of the novel—that is, who is the novel really about, Ayad or Sikander? What in the text tells you so? How does it do so?

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