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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. How does the author of "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning" end her list of rules that she says may help a black person avoid being killed?

2. What does the author of "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning" ultimately determine is the one feeling that the whole United States needs to share before racially-motivated police brutality can end?

3. Kevin Young begins his essay "Blacker Than Thou" by discussing which movie in which Steve Martin plays the lead role?

4. In what state did Kiese Laymon's grandmother live and work?

5. What song did President Barack Obama sing at the funeral for those killed in the Emanuel Mother Church massacre?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the object mentioned in the very first lines of OutKast's music first heard by Kiese Laymon and why did the object's mention draw him in?

2. In what ways did Kiese Laymon feel validated and inspired by the words of Andre 3000 at the Source Awards of 1995?

3. What details does Kiese Laymon use in order to depict his grandmother's identity to the reader?

4. At the start of the essay "The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning," why do the two women talking about one's recent arrival of a son laugh when the new mother says her first thought had been how she could get her baby boy out of America?

5. How does the poem "Queries of Unrest" connect to the part of the collection that it opens, entitled Reckoning?

6. Who does Claudia Rankine name as the person who created "a new pathway for how to think about a lynched body" (147) and what does she mean?

7. What event does the author of "Composite Pops" name as the one that taught him that he must be able to save himself?

8. Why does Garnette Cadogan hold out hope that he will not encounter the same problems while walking in New York City that he had while walking in New Orleans?

9. What distinction does Kiese Laymon make between "stank" and "freshness" (118) in his essay "Da Art of Storytellin' (A Prequel)"?

10. Name at least three actions that the author of "Composite Pops" attributes to all of the men he describes as Pops, his composite father.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The collection focuses on police brutality as one of the major injustices inflicted upon African-Americans. Write an essay analyzing at least two of the authors' rhetoric and attitudes concerning police brutality and how their treatments of the topic fit into the context of the other themes regarding race contained in the collection.

Essay Topic 2

Despite the overwhelming gravity of the topic of racial injustice within modern America, Jesmyn Ward speaks to her feelings of hope when looking at the pieces collected within The Fire This Time. Choose three works that contain the theme of hope and discuss how the pieces' messages come together and how they link back to Jesmyn Ward's comments regarding hope in her introduction to the collection.

Essay Topic 3

Perform a biographical criticism of one of the essays or poems after conducting research about the author's life and works.

(see the answer keys)

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