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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 Leona prepare for a day of calling the government?

2. What did Leona’s grandma lay on the graves of her physicians?

3. What has Tio Juan become?

4. Why does Wendell say the beans were lucky to have lived?

5. What does Ana find when she digs something up?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Kim’s family keep a photo of their father at an alter?

2. How does the chapter “Wendell” begin to show that words are not necessary to bring cultures together?

3. Why do you think Tio Juan becomes “childish” in the book?

4. How does gardening help Tio Juan in the chapter “Gonzalo”?

5. Why does Kim wonder about whether her father sees her?

6. What were Leona’s grandmother’s experiences with doctors?

7. What does Gonzalo learn about his equation by the end of the chapter “Gonzalo”?

8. What tragedies has Wendell experienced, and what are the effects on his life?

9. Why does Leona want to plant goldenrod?

10. Why do you think Wendell becomes attached to the bean plants, as Ana did?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sam mentions the garden as a paradise, and compares it to Eden. Wendell points out a biblical verse “A child shall lead them.” Sam notes that the garden is a reflection of society. If this is the case, compare and contrast the society depicted by those in the beginning of the novel with the society depicted by those at the end of the novel. Do you think the garden was the only thing responsible for the change? Why or why not? How did Leona, Sam, Nora, Sae Young, and the other characters all help to make the community a better place?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the novel, the characters mention fighting a number of stereotypes. Choose three characters from the book, and explain how their lives have been impacted by the stereotypes either about them, held by others, or held by them about others. How do these stereotypes damage their relationships with others? What, if anything, changes them in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

In several chapters in the novel, characters go from being unable to function in society, to being a vital part of a thriving garden. How did this happen for Sae Young, Nora’s client, and Tio Juan? Why did the garden help them? How did it allow them a chance to become something they otherwise could not have been?

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