Narrative tense: In the first sentence, which two verbs establish the past tense? (Hint: One is a state-of-being verb and the other is an action verb.)
2. What was Sonia’s impetus for seeking a job? 3. Why didn’t Sonia’s mother want her to work?
4. By making an analogy between her neighborhood and the island in Lord of the Flies, what point is Sonia trying to make about her neighorbood? (p. 2, paragraph 3)
5. Why do you think Sonia held the police, whom she greatly appreciated, to a higher moral standard, like priests or nuns? (bottom of p. 2, top of p. 3)
6. Give two examples of rhetorical questions Sonia uses. What is the effect of each question? (What does each question emphasize or draw attention to?)
7. Even though Tita Aurora and the other seamstresses were breaking the law, why didn’t Sonia consider them criminals? (p. 3)
8. What parallel does Sonia draw between the women making prank calls and the police officer taking two bags of fruit from the fruit vendor? (p. 3)
9. Consider all of Sonia’s experiences in this memoir. Which do you think benefitted her the most in her legal career? Explain.
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10. Identify two or more themes in the story. Lo