View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does the narrator say stood at the head of his list of heroes for a long time in Chapter 2?

2. What does the narrator have for breakfast that is described as “boiled to the consistency where it could be eaten with a fork” in Chapter 4?

3. How much do the narrator and his companion each pay the waiter at the restaurant where they eat in Chapter 4?

4. Who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

5. What term from the book refers to “the boys who pulled the long stems from the tobacco leaves”?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the early childhood of the narrator described in Chapter 1? Where does he live?

2. How is the first Pullman car porter described by the narrator? Where does the narrator meet him?

3. How does the motif of music apply in the novel? What is the narrator’s relationship to music?

4. Who is the narrator’s guide when he first arrives in Atlanta in Chapter 4? What are the narrator’s impressions of the city?

5. How is segregation addressed when the narrator eats his first meal in Atlanta in Chapter 4?

6. Where did James Weldon Johnson attend university? How is this institution described?

7. What are “slave narratives”? How are they related to the narrative of The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man?

8. Where does the narrator begin working in Jacksonville in Chapter 5?

9. What event takes place informing the narrator of his ethnic heritage in his early years? How does he react to the information?

10. What does the narrator discover when he encounters the porter at a dance in Chapter 5?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the popular dance called the cake-walk. When did this dance originate? How did it evolve over time? What does the narrator say in praise of the dance in Chapter 5?

Essay Topic 2

Define irony and the different forms of irony used in literature. What is dramatic irony and how does it apply to the novel? What are examples of irony in Chapter 5? What is ironic about the narrator’s perceptions of personal and racial identity in the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the setting of Atlanta, Georgia, and the narrator’s impressions of the city upon arrival. How does the city compare with the narrator’s childhood home in Connecticut? How does he perceive the African Americans of the South to be different than those of the North? Where does the narrator stay upon his arrival?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 896 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample