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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 reason does Shorty give for not joining Richard?

2. What does Richard think he needs to build a bridge of?

3. Who is the only person among Richard's family in Chicago who does not fall ill?

4. Who throws Richard out of the May Day parade?

5. What is the name of Richard's new landlady?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do the white employers at the optical factory arrange a boxing match between Richard and Harrison?

2. Why does Bill terrify Richard?

3. Who was Marcus Garvey?

4. Why do Richard's fellow comrades begins to shun him?

5. How do Richard's white co-workers in the cafe shock him?

6. Why does Richard want to read H.L Mencken?

7. What problems does Wright find in New York City?

8. How do the white man and black man use Richard to help them move the liquor?

9. Why does Shorty amuse Richard?

10. What does Richard decide at the end of the book?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Discuss the connotations of the word "nigger."

1) What is its original meaning and what has it come to mean?

2) Why is it now considered so wrong to use?

3) Do you think the word has become too powerful?

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?

(see the answer keys)

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