Question 7 • Hopkins FA American Literature (2026-2027)
Read the excerpt from Cristina Garcia’s Dreaming in Cuban.That’s it. My mind’s made up. I’m going back to Cuba. I’m fed up with everything around here. I take all my money out of the bank, $120, money I earned slaving away at my mother’s bakery, and buy a one-way bus ticket to Miami. I figure if I can just get there, I’ll be able to make my way to Cuba, maybe rent a boat or get a fisherman to take me. I imagine Abuela [grandmother] Celia’s surprise as I sneak up behind her. She’ll be sitting in her wicker swing overlooking the sea and she’ll smell of salt and violet water. There’ll be gulls and crabs along the shore. She’ll stroke my cheek with her cool hands, sing quietly in my ear.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 speaker describes a present decision to leave, then imagines a future meeting with Abuela Celia in Cuba. Moving from the current moment to an imagined later event disrupts a strictly chronological sequence. This is an example of manipulating the chronological order of events, not of using several narrators.
AI-written and checked against the verified answer.