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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 did the author's parents teach him about religion?

2. For how many years were black people enslaved in America?

3. How old was Tamir Rice when he was shot?

4. Who were the first white people the author knew on a personal level?

5. Whom does the author describe as "the God I never had"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the symbolism behind the author's son's name?

2. How does the author compare his childhood to that of his son?

3. How does research and study affect the author as a young man?

4. What role did religion play in the author's childhood?

5. For what reasons did the author's father punish him and why?

6. How did fear shape the author's childhood?

7. What is the author's interpretation of "The Dream"?

8. What influence did Malcom X have on the author as a young man?

9. According to the author, how has the lack of fathers and father-figures affected black children?

10. What conflicting thoughts does the author have about the civil rights movement of the 1960s?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Fear is a recurring theme in the author's memoir. What role does fear play in the lives of black Americans? How has fear preserved the author's body? Has fear repressed the author? What are some of the positive and negative effects of the fear he has experienced throughout his life?

Essay Topic 2

Malcom X was one of the greatest, if the not the greatest, literary influence in the author's life. Malcom X was assassinated in February of 1965. How might this knowledge have shaped the influence Malcom X had over the author, who was born ten years after Malcom's death? Using your own knowledge of world history, what aspects of Malcolm X's beliefs might have shaped the author's depiction of the racist role of America?

Essay Topic 3

The author speaks of the complexity of human society. Describe the contrast between the reality of his Baltimore neighborhood with that of the American suburbia he viewed on TV as a child. How might this contrast have affected his personal philosophy?

(see the answer keys)

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