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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 did the author react to his son being pushed off the escalator?

2. The dead boy's mother channeled her anger into _____.

3. What does the author remember about Manhattan?

4. According to Solzhenitsyn, "To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is _____ " what?

5. What did the author notice as he walked the streets of Paris for the first time?

Short Essay Questions

1. How, does Coats write, have his eyes been damaged by what he has seen?

2. Why did the thought of encountering the Prince George's County patrol officer frighten the author?

3. What reasons does the author give for Prince Jones' behavior prior to his death?

4. How is the author disappointed by the lack of education during his Civil War battlefield tour?

5. What role has fear played in Samori's (the author's son) life?

6. Why did the author move to New York?

7. What in the significance of the author's vision of Prince Jones in the museum?

8. What reasons does the author give for the woman feeling validated in pushing his son off the escalator?

9. Why is the author's fear of his son seeing him arrested greater than his fear of being arrested?

10. According to the author, how does the fear of losing one's life promote violence?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

How does the author compare his experiences with public education to the expectations that society has for black people? What does it mean when he says that “the schools were not concerned with curiosity,” but with “compliance” ? What statement might the author be making about racial injustice in the American school system?

Essay Topic 3

As Coates drives away from Dr. Jones' elegant home, he passes though a ghetto. What does this ghetto symbolize to the author? What similarities does he draw between black Americans of all socioeconomic classes? What conclusions can you draw about Coates' view of "The American Dream"?

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This section contains 1,350 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample