View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Richard work next?

2. What does Richard neglect to call one of the white youths?

3. What does Richard borrow from the schoolteacher's room?

4. When does the policeman say Richard should not make deliveries to white neighborhoods?

5. Why does Richard's boss fire him?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why does Richard leave his job in the sawmill?

3. Why does Richard continue working for the second white family, even though he dislikes them?

4. Why does Richard think Grandpa is so bitter?

5. What does Richard do after he has read his speech at graduation?

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

7. Why does Richard threaten Addie with a knife in Chapter 4?

8. Why can Richard not keep his promise to his mother not to fight white children?

9. How does Richard's ability to read and write help him in Chapter 3?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Pick one of the following characters and examine his/her influence on molding Richard's character.

1) Richard's mother

2) Richard's father

3) Richard's grandmother

4) Aunt Maggie

5) Alan

Essay Topic 2

Compare the differences between the North and the South.

1) How did whites treat blacks differently in the South than they did in the North?

2) Why did black people stay in the South when people viewed it as so racist?

3) Why does Richard find life in the North just as unsatisfactory as he found life in the South?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the religious connotations in the book.

1) How does Wright represent black people's relationship with Christianity?

2) Why does Sue change her Christian faith for Communism?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 777 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample