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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. What duality does the pachuco represent?
2. Why did the sense of Mexicanism "float" in the air of Los Angeles?
3. What does Paz deem to be the first and most serious change that a man endures when he becomes a worker?
4. What did Paz find in the actions and faces of North Americans?
5. From what does a fiesta free the Mexican, in Paz's understanding?
Short Essay Questions
1. In the author's parable, who is Nobody? Is it possible for Nobody to break the progression of his existence? Why or why not?
2. Who is the Chingada? What relation does she hold to every Mexican, whether male or female?
3. In Chapter Three, the following idea is presented: "There is nothing so joyous as a Mexican fiesta, but there is also nothing so sorrowful. Fiesta night is also a night of mourning" (Chapter 3, page 53). What does that mean?
4. What is the character of the Mexican's solitude? How does it differ from the solitude of the North American?
5. According to Alarcon, why does the liar lie to himself? Given what you know of the Mexican mindset, does that make sense?
6. What is the world of terrorism like? How is it different from the past world of conquest and war?
7. What is the greatest horror that a worker suffers? Do you think that is true?
8. How does Paz explain the Mexican woman's role in society? How does that strip her of her personality?
9. What is dissimulation? How does it compare to lying? How does it affect the Mexican's idea of himself?
10. How does Mexico's poverty relate to the fiesta? What French interpretation did it inspire?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
"Man is alone everywhere. But the solitude of the Mexican, under the great stone night of the high plateau that is still inhabited by insatiable gods, is very different from that of the North American, who wanders in an abstract world of machines, fellow citizens and moral precepts" (Chapter One, pg 20). What does that mean? Is it true?
Essay Topic 2
What personal experiences did Paz pull from to write the book? How did he incorporate them into the broader scope of Mexican history? How did that affect the tone?
Essay Topic 3
Who is the Chingada? What roots does she have in Aztec religion and history? Like her opposite, the Virgin of Guadalupe, is redemption possible?
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This section contains 1,766 words (approx. 6 pages at 300 words per page) |
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