Quiz Anita de Monte Laughs Last Xóchitl González

Anita de Monte Laughs Last Quiz: 20 Questions About Art, Power, and Haunting

This quiz spans the entire novel Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xóchitl González. Questions are drawn from the plot sequence, character motivations, themes and symbols, and higher‑order synthesis. Mix of multiple‑choice and short‑answer formats. Answers and explanations follow.

Plot and Sequence Questions (8 questions)

  1. In Chapter 2, what does Anita de Monte do at Tilly Barber’s party after seeing Jack with another woman?
    a) Confronts Ingrid directly
    b) Dances exuberantly with Jomar, drawing the room’s attention
    c) Leaves the party and goes home alone
    d) Tells Tilly about her Rome Prize secret

  2. Why does Raquel Toro first become interested in Anita de Monte?
    a) She finds Anita’s diary in the library
    b) She hears about Anita’s murder from a classmate
    c) Nick’s mother casually dismisses Anita as a “pushy Cuban thing”
    d) Professor Temple assigns her research on Anita

  3. What event directly precedes Anita’s death in Chapter 9?
    a) She wins the Guggenheim Fellowship
    b) She hires a private detective to gather evidence of Jack’s adultery
    c) She destroys all of Jack’s sculptures
    d) She calls her sister to confess her plan

  4. After Anita’s ghost emerges from the ceiba tree, what new power does the bat teach her?
    a) The ability to read minds
    b) The ability to become visible and bite by first falling
    c) The power to move objects at will
    d) The skill to speak in any human language

  5. In Chapter 25, what does Nick do that prompts Raquel to leave his apartment?
    a) He forbids her from seeing her friends
    b) He cuts her hair far shorter than she agreed to
    c) He throws her portfolio across the room
    d) He reveals he has been dating Astrid

  6. How does Jack Martin attempt to counteract Anita’s posthumous retrospective?
    a) He files a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement
    b) He stages his own concurrent art show
    c) He writes a tell‑all memoir
    d) He donates her work to a foreign museum

  7. What discovery does Raquel make about Anita’s art while researching in the library?
    a) That Anita forged her most famous pieces
    b) That the vibrant, loud images evoke belonging and embodied place
    c) That Jack Martin actually created all of her work
    d) That the work was destroyed in a fire

  8. In the final chapter (Chapter 34), what does Anita ultimately do instead of pushing Jack down the stairs?
    a) She forgives him and becomes a protective guardian
    b) She traps him in a bat’s body
    c) She forces him to confess in public
    d) She summons her sister to witness the act

Character Motivation Questions (5 questions)

  1. Why does Jack Martin decide to portray Anita as unstable during his murder trial?
    a) He honestly believes she was mentally ill
    b) His lawyer advises it to avoid conviction
    c) He wants to protect his affair with Ingrid
    d) He thinks it will win sympathy from the art world

  2. What motivates Tilly Barber to cancel Anita’s retrospective?
    a) She never liked Anita’s art style
    b) She is under pressure from Jack and fears his power
    c) She wants to organize her own rival show
    d) She believes the timing is disrespectful to the art world

  3. Why does Raquel cut her own hair after Nick trims it?
    a) To match a hairstyle she saw in a magazine
    b) To reclaim control over her body after Nick’s violation
    c) Because Betsaida dares her to
    d) To impress Julian

  4. In Chapter 12, why does Anita remain in Cuba for a year?
    a) She is stranded due to political unrest
    b) She wants to reconnect with family and create authentic work
    c) Jack refuses to let her return to New York
    d) She falls in love with a Cuban artist

  5. What drives Raquel to confront Professor Temple about omitting Jack Martin’s domestic violence from the curriculum?
    a) She reads Anita’s unpublished letters
    b) She realizes how institutional bias shaped her own artistic tastes
    c) Her mother pressures her to speak out
    d) Nick dares her to prove him wrong

Theme and Symbol Questions (4 questions)

  1. In the novel, what does the ceiba tree primarily represent?
    a) The art world’s hierarchical structure
    b) A liminal portal between the living and the dead
    c) Anita’s Cuban heritage
    d) Jack’s artistic inspiration

  2. What does the bat symbolize for Anita’s ghost?
    a) Freedom from memory
    b) The power to take physical form and enact vengeance
    c) The burden of eternal sadness
    d) Connection to her lost family

  3. Which theme is most directly introduced by the epigraph from Anthony F. Janson?
    a) The importance of the Western art canon
    b) The politics of exclusion and canon formation
    c) The role of museums in preserving art
    d) The superiority of abstract art

  4. What does the ocean/water motif, especially Yemayá, signify in Anita’s narrative?
    a) Death as an ending
    b) Spiritual rebirth and return to heritage
    c) The coldness of the art world
    d) The passage of time

Synthesis Questions (3 questions)

  1. How do Raquel and Anita’s experiences with male partners (Nick and Jack) parallel each other?
    a) Both partners encourage their artistic independence
    b) Both relationships involve controlling behavior, objectification, and a struggle for autonomy
    c) Both women leave their partners early in the story
    d) Both men are secretly supportive of their careers

  2. What role does art play in Anita’s ghostly existence?
    a) It has no effect on her spirit
    b) When her art is out in the world, her spirit gains energy and power
    c) It only causes her pain
    d) It allows her to speak to the living

  3. What does Raquel’s journey from passive student to engaged seeker suggest about the novel’s view of art history?
    a) Art history is an objective discipline
    b) Institutional bias can erase marginalized artists, but individuals can reclaim and restore their legacies
    c) The canon is complete and should not be questioned
    d) Only famous artists deserve study

Answer Key

  1. b – Anita dances with Jomar, “transmuting” her anger into a spectacle that captivates the party. (See Chapter 2, outline: “she transmutes her anger into joy and dances exuberantly.”)
  2. c – Linda Fitzsimmons’ dismissive remark triggers Raquel’s curiosity about Anita. (See Chapter 18 outline.)
  3. b – In Chapter 9, Anita confronts Jack wearing only a thong and holding the evidence file from private detective Romero, leading to her murder. (See evidence from Chapter 9.)
  4. b – The bat (Marco’s lover) tells Anita she can become visible and bite by first falling. (See Chapter 17 outline.)
  5. b – Nick cuts twelve inches but continues far beyond, leaving Raquel’s hair brutally short; she then leaves. (See Chapter 25 outline.)
  6. b – Jack convinces Tilly to stage his own show concurrently with Anita’s retrospective. (See Chapter 19 outline.)
  7. b – Raquel examines the only library catalog of Anita’s work and feels that the vibrant, loud images “evoke belonging and embodied place.” (See Chapter 21 outline.)
  8. a – In Chapter 34, Anita stops her pursuit, tired of vengeance; her art restored lessens her anger and she becomes a protective guardian. (See outline for Chapter 34.)
  9. b – Lawyer Ron Rosen advises portraying Anita as unstable, citing her Santeria practice, to get a favorable bench trial. (See Chapter 11 outline.)
  10. b – Tilly makes calls under Jack’s pressure, knowing it’s wrong but complying. (See Chapter 20 evidence: “She knew it was wrong and still … did his bidding.”)
  11. b – After Nick violates her bodily consent, Raquel methodically cuts more of her own hair as an act of reclamation. (See Chapter 25 outline.)
  12. b – In Cuba she performs a ritual cleansing, creates cave sculptures, and reconnects with family and her orishas, seeking authenticity. (See Chapter 12 outline.)
  13. b – After Nick cuts her hair, Raquel realizes how institutional bias shaped her tastes and her deference to him. (See Chapter 27 outline.)
  14. b – The ceiba tree serves as a liminal portal that Anita climbs to travel between the afterlife and the living world. (See Chapters 17, 22, 26.)
  15. b – The bat form gives Anita the ability to fly, become visible, and bite, enabling her to haunt. (See Chapter 17 and 20 evidence.)
  16. b – The Janson epigraph defends excluding non‑Western art, directly introducing themes of exclusion and canon formation. (See Chapter 1 outline.)
  17. b – Anita’s fall slows into a mystical ocean; she returns to Yemayá and stands on Varadero Beach, symbolizing rebirth and heritage. (See Chapter 9 outline.)
  18. b – Both Jack and Nick exert control; Anita is physically abused and Raquel is manipulated and violated (hair‑cutting), highlighting parallel dynamics. (Synthesis from character arcs.)
  19. b – In Chapter 20, Anita realizes: “It was my art out in the world … when my art was in the world, so was I. My energy! My spirit!” (See evidence.)
  20. b – Raquel’s thesis and subsequent career challenge institutional erasure, showing that individuals can reclaim lost legacies. (See Chapters 21, 27, 33.)

Return to the book overview or browse questions and answers and the ending explained.