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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 can Richard now do with his class mates?

2. What does Richard pawn in this chapter?

3. What city does Alan move to?

4. Where does Ella send her children?

5. What does Richard reason that an honest living would lead to?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Richard stop selling the newspaper?

2. How does Richard's mother punish him for burning down the house?

3. What does Wright think about his writing career in retrospect?

4. What happens when Richard gets a flat tire on his bicycle?

5. How does Richard burn down his grandparents' house?

6. What happens when Richard makes a delivery to a white neighborhood in Chapter 9?

7. What does Richard think about the popular contention that black people lead passionate, emotional lives?

8. Why does Richard hang the kitten?

9. Why does Granny beat Richard with a wet towel?

10. How do Pease and Reynolds treat Richard at the optical factory?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify the main themes of the book. Why do you think these themes are so important to the book? How does Wright use character and setting to express his themes?

Essay Topic 2

Examine violence in the novel.

1) In what way does the violence play an important part in getting Wright's view across?

2) How do the students think the public reacted to the novel's violence when it was first published? How would the public react to such a book today?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the beatings Richard's family inflicted upon him. Why did Richard's family beat him so much? What effect did the beatings have on him? Why were such beating typical of that time period?

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