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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. Where does RIchard take a job?

2. What does Richard say the dogs do silently when they regain consciousness?

3. Whose work does Wright want to read?

4. What does Richard tell his black comrade he does for a living?

5. Where does Richard find work?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Richard realize as he stands in line at the relief station?

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

3. Why does Shorty amuse Richard?

4. Who was Marcus Garvey?

5. Why does Bill terrify Richard?

6. How do Richard's co-workers react when he tells them he is moving North?

7. Why does Richard find Chicago so startling?

8. Why does Mrs. Moss end up disgusting Richard?

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

10. What happens when Richard joins the May Day parade?

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

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?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the differences between how Wright represents white characters and how he represents black characters.

1) In what way are Wright's representations of white characters unsympathetic? Are his representations too unsympathetic?

2) In what way does Wright suggest that the way a white person treats a black person directly influences some of the black people's illegal behavior? Is this an accurate representation?

(see the answer keys)

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