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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Paz's estimation, what vital word has the Mexican forgotten?
(a) The word of love given to him by his mother.
(b) The word tying him to life forces of creativity and destruction.
(c) The word that allows him to reach out to others.
(d) The word that gives him peace with all others.

2. What does Paz deem to be the first and most serious change that a man endures when he becomes a worker?
(a) He loses communion with his fellow man.
(b) He stops earning what he is worth.
(c) He loses his sense of the Divine.
(d) He loses his individuality.

3. What familial relationship does Paz equate with solitude?
(a) Having no male relatives.
(b) Having no siblings.
(c) Being an orphan.
(d) Being childless.

4. When does the pachuco become his true self?
(a) When he is surrounded by fellow Mexicans.
(b) When he is in Mexico.
(c) When he is alone.
(d) When his life explodes.

5. As the closure to Chapter Two, the reader sees what shadow spreading out over Mexico?
(a) The shadow of dissimulation.
(b) The shadow of Nobody.
(c) The shadow of Catholicism.
(d) The shadow of truth.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the most valued trait in both the military and political realms?

2. How does the philosophy of progress treat death?

3. In Paz's opinion, when is a person most likely to see himself as precious and unique?

4. What makes the foreigner skeptical about Mexicans (Chapter Four)?

5. During the fiesta of Grito, why do the people shout for one hour, in Paz's interpretation?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is left of the colonial world? Are those remnants the best or the worst parts that could be left behind?

2. What is the Mexican view of death? When does death become saddest?

3. Why does the Mexican love Form? Other than in personal relationships, how does that idea express itself?

4. How does Mexico's poverty relate to the fiesta? What French interpretation did it inspire?

5. What happens during the fiesta? What is the emotional result?

6. How important are fiestas in Mexican culture? What relationship exists between the fiesta and the individual?

7. How does North American culture view the pachuco? Does the pachuco accept or reject that culture's perception of him?

8. Who represents the conflict that Mexicans have not been able to solve? What effect does that conflict have on their culture?

9. What were Paz's impressions of the United States? How does that contrast with the literature being written? In your mind, what accounts for the discrepancy?

10. What is the Mexican's ideal of manliness? How does it affect his interactions with other people?

(see the answer keys)

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