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 8.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the occasion of Ellison's speech "Brave Words on a Startling Occasion?"
(a) Eldest son's wedding.
(b) Induction into the American Negro Writer's Hall of Fame.
(c) Address to the Harvard University graduating class of 1950.
(d) Acceptance of the American National Book Award in 1953.

2. What Greek myth does Ellison refer to in "Brave Words?"
(a) Theseus and Antigone.
(b) Zeus and Poseidon.
(c) The Odyssey and Proteus.
(d) The birth of Athena.

3. Where is the essay "Stephen Crane and the Mainstream of American Fiction" published?
(a) In the Atlantic Monthly.
(b) In the Harvard Review of Literature, 1950.
(c) As an introduction to "The Red Badge of Courage" 1960 printing.
(d) It was never published.

4. What does Ellison praise about "Primer for White Folks?"
(a) Easy to read and young children will like it.
(b) The search for images of black and white fraternity.
(c) Short and to the point.
(d) Realistic and therefore does not contain much hope.

5. What is the Negro child taught to see the white man as?
(a) Wise and loyal.
(b) Something to be ignored.
(c) Omniscient, omnipotent and as relentless as a Mississippi flood.
(d) A being from another planet.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Ellison grow up?

2. What does Ellison believe writing is?

3. Where does Ellison give the public address "Hidden Name and Complex Fate?"

4. What is the origin of the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke?"

5. What does Ralph Ellison's father hope that Ralph will grow up to be?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 307 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample