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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. How does Damiana originally know Juan?

2. What is Inocencio Osorio's nickname?

3. Who tells Juan to go to Comala?

4. What is Eduviges' house full of?

5. What is Inocencio's job at the Media Luna ranch?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain Miguel Paramo's fate.

2. What clues are you given as to the boy's family's financial situation?

3. Describe the road to Comala.

4. Why are the two women that Juan encounters in the street worried?

5. How do Pedro and Dolores part ways?

6. What does the burro driver tell Juan about how don Pedro treats women?

7. What does the woman tell Juan about nights in Comala?

8. Why does Juan's mother hate having her picture taken?

9. Why does Eduviges and Dolorita promise to die together?

10. Describe the encounter between Father Rentería and María Dyada after Eduviges' death.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sorrow is seen as an omnipresent and necessary part of life in Comala. Explain the characters' experience of sorrow in each of the following examples:

- Susana's mourning of Florencio

- Dorotea's sorrow over her unborn child

- Pedro's mourning over Susana

- Abundio's mourning over his wife

What are the consequences of each of these losses? How does the sorrow affect the lives of the ones left living? Would you agree that sorrow is necessary in life? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Susana represents two sides of our natures: the physical and the spiritual, the body versus the soul. Susana rejects the spiritual realm and instead revels in sensual, corporeal pleasures and sensations. Give at least three examples of the text where Susana remembers a physical, bodily experience. How does her nature affect her fate? Do you think her sensual nature is at all to blame for the nature of her relationship with Pedro? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

One of the themes that runs through the novel is the nature of redemption and hope in a person's life. Select one of the following characters and explain what gives them hope during their lives:

- Juan

- Pedro

- Susana

- Dolores

- Dorotea

Address how (or if) they are able to find any sort of redemption in the afterlife. How do you know this from the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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