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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 does Beloved do when Denver asks why she didn't cry?

2. What did Denver used to play in her hiding place?

3. What does Sethe feed outside the back of her workplace?

4. Why could Paul not help his friend?

5. What is the name of Sethe's daughter?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do you think Paul D says it is a bad idea for an ex-slave to love his children so much?

2. How is Georgia the most notorious slave state in the Union?

3. Why does Denver not want Sethe to undo her braids?

4. Why do think Paul thinks that Beloved is moving him around the house?

5. Why was Sethe so angry about the boys taking her milk?

6. How is it significant to the story that Sethe was not thrown into the sea unlike the other babies?

7. Do you think it is important that Sethe's scar resembles a tree?

8. In what way does the seventh chapter show the horrors of slavery?

9. In the seventh chapter, Beloved chokes on a raisin, and again it is Denver who takes her upstairs. Why do you think at this point Denver is still so attentive towards Beloved's needs?

10. Why does Paul question his manhood?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A ghost haunts 124. What do you think the ghost symbolizes? Why do you think they are so ready to believe in a ghost?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss how a black person was seen during the nineteenth century

1) Before the abolition of slavery

2) Immediately after the abolition of slavery.

3) How long has it taken for white people's negative views of black people to change? How much has it changed?

Essay Topic 3

Look at the historical setting of the novel.

1) What were the rights of the ex-slaves? Were their lives any better? What kind of jobs did they get?

2) Was slavery completely abolished at this time?

(see the answer keys)

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