View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Thi says that Ma's friends would often tell Thi that she looked like her mother, "but not as" (132) what?

2. What action had Bo's grandfather taken in relation to Bo's grandmother just before she had left forever?

3. When Bo again lived with his grandmother and grandfather at the age of 14, of what material was their roof made?

4. The violence in Saigon resulted in the destruction of whose opium?

5. Chapter 8, entitled "The Shore" begins in what type of setting?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the meaning of the term "nguy" (221)?

2. How does Bui elicit pathos within Chapter 7, entitled "Heroes and Losers"?

3. Who was Truong Chinh and whom did he emulate?

4. What new law is one that Ma is unwilling to follow?

5. What objects do the Communists consider to be "capitalist filth" (220)?

6. What is Thi's hypothesis about why one particular person in her life is difficult for her to write about?

7. What objects must the Bui family burn when the Communists begin to search the people's homes?

8. What happens when Bo's father visits Bo for the first time in 20 years?

9. What two poses does Thi use to depict her childhood sketches of Ma?

10. Whom does Thi name as being a difficult person for her to write about?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how and why Bui instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of The Best We Could Do.

Essay Topic 2

What is Bui’s purpose for discussing at length the nature of the connection between adult children and their parents?

Essay Topic 3

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Bui’s memoir The Best We Could Do. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the memoir.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 884 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample