View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 1, The Seer and the Seen, Section 4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ellison believe writing is?
(a) Mindless activity.
(b) A way to criticize others.
(c) Ethical instrument.
(d) Channeling of higher beings.

2. According to Ellison what does the term "the grays" mean?
(a) Negro term for white people.
(b) Negro term for nightfall.
(c) Slang word for feeling bored.
(d) American melting pot.

3. What are the three themes of "Shadow and Act" according to the Introduction?
(a) Racism, Poverty and Obstruction of Justice.
(b) Classical Dance, Country Music and Folk Art.
(c) Literature, Jazz/Blues and the relationship between Negro America and American culture.
(d) White people, Black people, and Native Americans.

4. What does Mark Twain do with the character of Jim that breaks through the black face minstrel tradition?
(a) He's a complex, dignified and very human person.
(b) Jim performs black face without the paint.
(c) Jim's very serious and not at all fun.
(d) Jim is stereotypical and boring.

5. As a child what do Ellison and his boyhood friends believe they are to do?
(a) Be whoever they would and could be.
(b) Negros had no chance of doing anything interesting in life.
(c) Negros could never equal the lives of white Americans.
(d) They were doomed to hard manual labor and suffering.

Short Answer Questions

1. What book does Hemingway believe all modern American fiction sprang from?

2. Who is Stephen Crane?

3. For Ellison who is the greatest artist the south has ever produced?

4. What folk tradition does Ellison believe the black face figure grows out of?

5. What does Huckleberry Finn recognize about the Negro character, Jim?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 342 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample