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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. What word from "My Dungeon Shook" means eager to fight or defiant?

2. For what work is Homer most known?

3. The author says of one of his ancestors in "My Dungeon Shook," "One of them said, the very time I thought I was lost, my dungeon shook and" what?

4. The author claims in his conclusion of "My Dungeon Shook" that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom when?

5. What does the author describe his ancestors building in "My Dungeon Shook"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does James Baldwin describe his father's defeat in "My Dungeon Shook"?

2. What does Baldwin claim to be "the root of my dispute with my country" in "My Dungeon Shook"?

3. How is the title of the essay employed in "My Dungeon Shook"?

4. How has the black man functioned in the white man's world, according to Baldwin in "My Dungeon Shook"?

5. Who is Charles Dickens and why does the author cite him in "My Dungeon Shook"?

6. How does the author describe his mother in "My Dungeon Shook"?

7. How does the author impress the importance of history on his nephew in "My Dungeon Shook"?

8. How does the author suggest his nephew perceive the "details and symbols of your life" in "My Dungeon Shook"?

9. How does the author describe aspirations toward excellence or mediocrity in "My Dungeon Shook"?

10. What "is the danger in the minds of most white Americans," according to the author in "My Dungeon Shook"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the parallels that the author draws between the Holocaust and the oppression of African Americans. How does the author indicate that World War II changed perceptions within the black community of white society? What did the fact of the Holocaust prove to the author?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's characterizations of his father and brother in "My Dungeon Shook." How does he compare and contrast these individuals? What does he describe as the failures and destruction of his father and brother? How does the author relate his father and brother to his nephew?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the differences in approach toward equality by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad. What are the differences in the ideologies of these individuals? How did they propose change? Whose methods were more effective in your opinion? Why?

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