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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How many days pass between Cudjo telling Hurston about his grandfather's death and her next visit to his home?

2. About whom is Cudjo trying to tell Hurston when she breaks in, telling Cudjo that she wants to hear more about his own life?

3. How long in total had the voyage to buy slaves taken the men on the Clotilde?

4. Cudjo's mother in Africa had given him what name?

5. What does Cudjo say had been the name of the god he had worshiped in Africa?

Short Essay Questions

1. Cudjo discusses a particular practice undertaken by rich men's daughters in his former community in Africa. What is that practice he describes?

2. How old is Cudjo at the time he is first interviewed by Zora Neale Hurston and what special problems does his age pose to Hurston's process?

3. What is Cudjo's reaction when Hurston calls him Kossula?

4. What are the circumstances of Zora Neale Hurston first meeting with Cudjo?

5. In the Preface, Hurston states her reasons for faithfully representing Cudjo's story "without the intrusion of interpretation" (3). What does she mean?

6. In the story Cudjo tells about a murderer in his African village, what reason does the murderer give for his actions when he is questioned?

7. What were the consequences for the Meaher family as a result of their decision to fund a journey to import slaves to Alabama?

8. What is the significance of Cudjo's reaction when Hurston tells him to focus on his own story rather than on his grandfather's story?

9. What is Zora Neale Hurston's purpose for including a photograph of a doorway just prior to the Preface of Barracoon?

10. What major event happens within Cudjo's family in the story he tells at the start of Chapter III?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the author's and interviewee’s use of Aristotle's appeals within the book Barracoon. How do Zora Neale Hurston and her interviewee Cudjo use each of the three appeals to persuade the reader of argumentative points central to the tenets of the work?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the significance of three of Barracoon’s main symbols. How do these symbols connect to the overall themes within the text?

Essay Topic 3

How does the theme of deception arise within the text of Hurston's book Barracoon and what messages are sent about the presence of deception within the human condition?

(see the answer keys)

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