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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 many people were killed at the first location in the insurrection?

2. Nat took four slaves to be hired out to Vaughan's for two weeks. When Nat met the men at the trace, what happened?

3. What does Nat compare his life as a slave child to?

4. Nat convinces some of his followers to join him by telling them of a "black" conqueror. About whom did Nat speak?

5. What year did Nat's grandmother die?

Short Essay Questions

1. As the book progresses, the descriptions of white slave owners grow worse and worse, until we reach Nathaniel Francis, introduced in Part 3. Why did Styron make each owner he described, whether the owner of Nat or other slaves, an uglier, meaner character than the one before?

2. Nat's vision in Part 3 involves a white angel and a black angel fighting. The black angel wins, casting the white angel down. When Nat questions this vision, he says he received no answer at all "save the answer in my brain." What did he interpret this vision as, and why?

3. Nat equates Isham to John the Baptist. Nat speaks of a warning after the incident with Isham. Is this related?

4. Early in Part 2, the traveling salesman asks Nat to spell a word. This is the second time in the book that a spelling request has frightened Nat. What are some of the reasons Nat gives for his terror?

5. In Part 3, when Nat is owned by Thomas Moore, he says that he fell into the kind of save work that he had believed before could "not ever become my lot, not in a thousand lifetimes." Yet now it had become his lot. How did Nat react to that? How does this turning point relate to his earlier childhood and education, as well as his eventual killing spree?

6. Miss Nell calls Nat "you smart little tar baby" in Part 1. Please explain what is meant by that name, and how it compares to what a white child would be called for the same reason.

7. After Nathaniel Francis forces Will and Sam to fight, Nat feels called to preach for the first time. Why do you think that was the event that brought Nat out in public as a preacher? Quote at least one reason from the book.

8. When Nat preaches in town in Part 3, he does not use proper English. Why do you think he does that?

9. The scene with Major Ridley's fiancee is very strong. A northern white woman, newly arrived in town, can't find her way around and can't understand the Negroes speech. According to Nat, she left, never to return. Why might Styron have had her interact with Arnold, an elderly slave who had been freed, but with no education and worse elocution?

10. After Nat's fast in Part 3, he said there were two events that helped him interpret his vision of the fighting angels as a mandate to kill whites. What were those two events?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Nat feel about T. R. Gray at the beginning of the book? Does he feel the same way at the end? How can you tell? Cite specific examples from the text. How does that compare to how Nat feels about other white people throughout the book?

Essay Topic 2

In Part 2, when Nat observes the interaction of Arnold and Major Ridley's fiancee, we see the first mention of sexual yearning on Nat's part for a woman--and in this case, a white woman. Yet it's not a yearning of love. In fact, Nat's imagery at this point is very violent. Why do you think Styron wrote the scene this way? Describe another way he could have written the scene. How would it have been different if it had been written the way you described? What different points, if any, would have been made with the other method?

Essay Topic 3

The book opens and closes with Nat's vision of a white building on a cliff, bathed in sunlight. What do you think the white building represents? Why is it next to the sea? Nat referenced hearing about the ocean from other slaves, but never got the chance to view it himself. How does this vision of an unattainable building tie in with Nat's life and his rebellion?

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