Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Consider the history of immigration to the US. How does the concept of the “American Dream” attract communities from around the world? What are the challenges and misperceptions for immigrants, if any?

Teaching Suggestion: This Short Answer Question invites students to reflect on their own understanding of the “American Dream.” Díaz’s collection of narratives touches upon the realities of life in the US for many immigrants from the Dominican Republic, as he intertwines comments and asides related to the difficulties of social mobility, the reality of substance abuse and narcotics selling for survival, infidelity and multiple families, and broken promises by family members. All of these situations speak to the larger themes of The Complexity and Hypocrisy of the American Dream and The Complexity of Human Identity, particularly for migrants of color. This Question connects with the main Activity.

• Díaz shares his motivations for sharing these stories in “Junot Díaz Talks Dominican Identity, Immigration and the (Complicated) American Dream.”
• Vox.com explores misconceptions and misperceptions of immigrant upward mobility via interviews in “