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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is Paz's opinion about Western respect for life?
(a) It is not convincing.
(b) It is truthful and realistic.
(c) It illustrates man's limitations.
(d) It is either hypocritical or incomplete.

2. What connotation does the verb, chingar, carry?
(a) Failure.
(b) Disaster.
(c) Violation.
(d) Mythical power.

3. How are the worlds of terrorism and mass production similar to each other? (Chapter Four).
(a) However subtle, they use persecution.
(b) Their primary catalyst is guilt.
(c) They focus on the individuality of man.
(d) They are worlds of things.

4. What does the pachuco represent in Paz's writing?
(a) One step along the path that a Mexican can take.
(b) The typical Mexican living in North American culture.
(c) The modern-day religious saint.
(d) One extreme at which the Mexican can arrive.

5. How does a man become "like the angels" (Chapter Three, page 61)?
(a) By entrusting everything to God.
(b) By valuing life to its final moment.
(c) By running from death to an embracement of life.
(d) By opening fully to death, as well as to life.

6. What is the novelty of the pachuco clothing?
(a) Its impracticality.
(b) Its disregard for current fashion.
(c) Its colors.
(d) Its exaggeration.

7. According to Paz, why does the liar tell lies to himself?
(a) He does not know the truth.
(b) He is afraid of the world.
(c) He is afraid of finding truth in other people.
(d) He is afraid of himself.

8. What did Paz find in the actions and faces of North Americans?
(a) A faith in their society and confidence in its survival.
(b) An unrealistic optimism about the future.
(c) A faith in man's intrinsic goodness and its effects on their culture.
(d) A fear about the survival of their society.

9. Paz discusses the result of persecution on the pachuco. What is that result?
(a) It strengthens his anger.
(b) It makes him stronger.
(c) It breaks his solitude.
(d) It makes him distrustful.

10. In Paz's example of the village near Mitla, how is their yearly income spent?
(a) On funerals.
(b) On weddings and christenings.
(c) On education.
(d) On fiestas.

11. How is the myth of the "long-suffering Mexican woman" created?
(a) When the woman overcomes her natural frailty.
(b) When the woman becomes impassive in the face of suffering.
(c) When the woman's natural frailty becomes a virtue.
(d) When the woman is most vulnerable to attack.

12. On which group of people were Paz's thoughts focused?
(a) Those who are focused on making Mexico a part of the world.
(b) Those who are seeking a better philosophy as Mexicans.
(c) The Mexican nation as a whole.
(d) Those who are conscious of themselves as Mexicans.

13. In the book's argument, what happens when a Mexican woman is passive?
(a) She can no longer relate to the man.
(b) She embodies the ancient elements of earth, motherhood, and virginity.
(c) She functions as a channel of the ancient elements: Earth, motherhood, and virginity.
(d) She comes to believe in the societal values given her.

14. Aside from being an excess, what does the fiesta revolt against?
(a) Sadness.
(b) Form.
(c) Life.
(d) Death.

15. In contrast to the North American, what is one of the most noticeable traits about the Mexican character?
(a) His acceptance of horror.
(b) His aversion to horror.
(c) His obsession with love.
(d) His disinterest in emotional attachments.

Short Answer Questions

1. To which of the following does Paz reduce the Mexican character? (Chapter Four, page 73).

2. How does solitude assume a purifying, almost purgative, quality for the Mexican?

3. When does the pachuco become his true self?

4. What does Paz deem to be the first and most serious change that a man endures when he becomes a worker?

5. What is the Spanish view of women in contrast to the Mexican?

(see the answer keys)

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