"My Father is a Simple Man" Poem Questions Salinas

Language that creates a mental picture by using the senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and/or touchings is called:

• simile
• personification
• speaker
• imagery

A stanza is:

• a paragraph in a poem
• an essay
• a mood
• a dance

 According to Salinas, what qualities made his father worthy of his admiration?

• He was kind, patient, and a good worker and provider.

• He was compassionate, gentle, and worldly.

• He was rich and generous.

• He was smart, charming, and well spoken.

Why does the speaker most likely describe the truth about his father being a scholar a “…bitter-hard reality/ com[ing] at [him] like a punishing/ evil stranger…”?

• He and his father were estranged for most of their lives due to Luis Salinas’ stubbornness; his father’s death reminds him of just how mean he was to his father when they were both younger.

   

•  Salinas’ father’s death is extremely difficult for him to face.  In remembering his father at the time of his passing, Luis can now see how his father was a great man who understood that what is truly important in life is actually quite simple.  Luis is humbled by his father’s simple greatness.

• Salinas can’t face that he had a better formal education than his father and yet—his father with a 6^th grade education is actually smarter than him.  He feels as though all of his writing has been worthless when compared to his father’s work.

• Luis Salinas feels like his father is a stranger to him since he was working all the time to provide for his family and never had the time to spend quality time with his kids.  Salinas wishes that he had asked for less when he was a child so that his father wouldn’t have had to work so hard.

What does “perpetual” mean in line 12?

• Not open to appeal or challenge

• Never ending; enduring; constant

• Completely baffled; very puzzled

• Permeate or suffuse with a liquid, color, quality, etc.

The metaphor in “My Father is a Simple Man” compares life to a

• Journey

•   Pomegranates and Oranges

• Newspaper

• Car

 When many students initially (FIRST) read the title, they predicted that Salinas’ father may be

• Not too smart, boring, and very ordinary

• Critical of those who did not have a higher-level education

  B.      

• Easily able to trick or dupe others

     

• Quick to anger and betray friendships

Which of the following can be considered the primary or main theme of Salinas’ poem?

• Life isn’t easy when you don’t have good role models as parents or caregivers.

• Life is not about what you have or how much you’ve accomplished for yourself, but who you are.

•   Life should be lived to the fullest by doing things that are exciting as often as possible.

• Life isn’t always easy when you don’t have a college education or parents with money.

What does “perpetual” mean in line 12?

 

• Not open to appeal or challenge

• Never ending; enduring; constant

• Completely baffled; very puzzled

• Permeate or suffuse with a liquid, color, quality, etc.

Why does the speaker most likely describe the truth about his father being a scholar a “…bitter-hard reality/ com[ing] at [him] like a punishing/ evil stranger…”?

• He and his father were estranged for most of their lives due to Luis Salinas’ stubbornness; his father’s death reminds him of just how mean he was to his father when they were both younger.

• Salinas’ father’s death is extremely difficult for him to face.  In remembering his father at the time of his passing, Luis can now see how his father was a great man who understood that what is truly important in life is actually quite simple.  Luis is humbled by his father’s simple greatness.

• Salinas can’t face that he had a better formal education than his father and yet—his father with a 6^th grade education is actually smarter than him.  He feels as though all of his writing has been worthless when compared to his father’s work.

• Luis Salinas feels like his father is a stranger to him since he was working all the time to provide for his family and never had the time to spend quality time with his kids.  Salinas wishes that he had asked for less when he was a child so that his father wouldn’t have had to work so hard.