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. What does Ruth say she was starved of?

2. Where does Ruth's mother suggest Ruth go for the summer?

3. What is Frances' mother good at?

4. What did James' father die of?

5. What happened to black men who dated white women?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does James hit the boy he meets on the bus?

2. Describe Ruth's school years.

3. How does Betsy react to Ruth's pregnancy?

4. How does Peter change Ruth's life?

5. Describe what happens when Ruth asks James to take the milk back to the shop.

6. Describe the cool father at the end of Chapter 4.

7. Why is music important to James?

8. What happens to James when his mother forgets to pick him up from kindergarten?

9. How does Ruth react to Hunter Jordan's death?

10. How does the 1960s black power affect James in Chapter 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do the students think it is important for James to find out about his mother's past? How has his mother hiding her past affected him?

Essay Topic 2

Examine how James' life compares with his mother's.

1) What individual difficulties did both characters endure?

2 How did they use their experiences in life to help one another?

Essay Topic 3

Why does Ruth treat her past with such disregard? How has Ruth's view of the past affected James and his siblings? How has Ruth harmed herself by disregarding her past?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 704 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample