Shadow and Act | Short Question Answer Key

Short Answer Key

Part 1, The Seer and the Seen, Section 1

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

Poet.

2. Where does Ellison grow up?

Oklahoma City.

3. How does Ellison describe his boyhood experience in Oklahoma?

Romantic aspirations in the spirit of frontier adventurousness.

4. As a child what do Ellison and his boyhood friends believe they are to do?

Be whoever they would and could be.

5. What are the three themes of "Shadow and Act" according to the Introduction?

Literature, Jazz/Blues and the relationship between Negro America and American culture.

6. What does Ellison say good fiction is made of?

What is real.

7. What does Ellison say the greatest difficulty for the Negro writer is?

Reveal what he truly feels rather than serving up what Negroes are supposed to feel.

8. Who is Henry Bowman...
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