Heritage and Multicultural American Identities — Test
Question 11 • CMS 2026-2027 English III CREDIT RECOVERY
Read the excerpt from Gary Soto’s short story "Like Mexicans.” My grandmother gave me bad advice and good advice when I was in my early teens. For the bad advice, she said that I should become a barber because they made good money and listened to the radio all day. “Honey, they don’t work como burros,” she would say every time I visited her. She made the sound of donkeys braying. “Like that, honey!” For the good advice, she said that I should marry a Mexican girl. “No Okies, hijo”—she would say— “Look, my son. He marry one and they fight every day about I don’t know what and I don’t know what.” For her, everyone who wasn’t Mexican, black, or Asian were Okies. The French were Okies, the Italians in suits were Okies. . . . she lectured me on the virtues of the Mexican girl. The complex narrative structure used in the excerpt is an example of
Answer
A
establishing a work of fiction that is based on nonfiction.
B
several narrators being used.
C
unconventional text features.
D
the chronological order of events being manipulated.
Explanation
The narrator looks back on advice his grandmother gave him when he was in his early teens, then organizes the memory by contrasting “bad advice” with “good advice.” This arrangement groups and explains events by topic rather than simply telling them in chronological order, so the chronological order is manipulated. The excerpt still has one narrator, and its quoted dialogue is not an unconventional text feature.
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