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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. Who does Cleaver write letters to in this chapter?

2. Where does Cleaver say humans climbed out from?

3. How did the man's arguments with his girlfriend end?

4. Who does Cleaver say is here to stay?

5. What did humans split into when they climbed from the primordial ooze?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Cleaver write about their relationship in his second letter to Axelrod?

2. Why does Cleaver think it is a mistake to attack the police?

3. What does Cleaver think Americans think of themselves collectively?

4. Why does Cleaver think President Johnson opposes sit-ins and teach-ins?

5. Why does Cleaver think black men need to see themselves as strong?

6. How does Cleaver think humankind began?

7. Why don't the younger men like the elderly black prisoner in Chapter 13?

8. How does Cleaver define the new left and the new right?

9. How have Axelrod and Cleaver's time in prison changed his attitude to women?

10. Why does Cleaver think that the world needs police and the military?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine Cleaver's time in prison.

1) What concessions did Cleaver have to make in prison to survive?

2) How did prison change Cleaver?

3) What kind of person do the students think Cleaver would have become if he had not gone to prison?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss differences between the novel and autobiography formats. What are the main elements of a novel? What are the main elements of an autobiography? What can novelists express that an autobiographer cannot? How can autobiographies keep to the facts while still maintaining a level of entertainment?

Essay Topic 3

Outline Cleaver's prison routine. How do the students think this routine benefited Cleaver? How did Cleaver make the most of his days?

(see the answer keys)

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