View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What good news does the group at Mrs. Lithebe’s house celebrate on the night before Kumalo et al. leave for Ndotsheni?
(a) They celebrate Msimangu’s imminent retirement into a religious community.
(b) They celebrate Mrs. Lithebe’s decision to become a nun.
(c) They celebrate Gertrude’s new job.
(d) They celebrate the sudden birth of Absalom’s baby.

2. How does Jarvis react when Kumalo admits it was his son who murdered James’?
(a) James lashes out violently against Kumalo.
(b) James breaks down sobbing.
(c) James demands that Kumalo leave the property immediately.
(d) James is surprised by compassionate.

3. What is the rumored purpose of the ground markings left by Jarvis and the magistrate in Ndotsheni?
(a) They mark out a new church.
(b) They mark out a village dairy.
(c) They mark out a dam.
(d) They mark out a new village school.

4. Who performs the sacrament that is performed immediately following the sentencing in the prison?
(a) Kumalo.
(b) Father Vincent.
(c) A prison chaplain.
(d) Msimangu.

5. What is the agricultural demonstrator’s attitude toward white people?
(a) He is grateful for their assistance in lifting blacks up.
(b) He sympathizes with the fear whites have built for themselves and hopes to work directly with them toward better racial understanding.
(c) He is bitter that blacks must rely on whites for assistance when whites suppressed them in the first place.
(d) He wishes they would give blacks their own nation and leave them alone.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the verdict for Absalom’s two accomplices?

2. Who effectively saves Kumalo from being sent away by the Bishop?

3. What name does Absalom ask his father to name his child if it is boy?

4. What other weapon was carried by one of the two accomplices?

5. What is the name of the agricultural demonstrator Jarvis hires for Ndotsheni?

Short Essay Questions

1. Compare and contrast Absalom and his wife’s reactions to their wedding.

2. How does the village chief’s interaction with the magistrate and James Jarvis support John Kumalo’s earlier statement about chiefs, “He is a trick, a trick to hold together something that the white man desires to hold together.”

3. What is the Judge’s ruling in the cases against Absalom and his two accomplices, Johannes and Matthew, and what are the Judge’s reasons for his verdicts?

4. What surprises James Jarvis most about people’s reaction to his son’s death?

5. Summarize the main events of the meeting between James Jarvis and Kumalo at the house of Jarvis’ kinswoman Barbara Smith.

6. Briefly summarize Arthur Jarvis’s argument about the responsibility of whites to blacks in the papers James Jarvis reads.

7. How does James Jarvis react when Kumalo tries to thank him for all the good work he is doing in Ndotsheni? Why does he likely react this way?

8. Describe the build-up, events, and results of the black mining strike.

9. What does Absalom give as his defense for owning a gun when the Judge asks him about it?

10. How does the focus of the novel shift at the beginning of Book Two? Who becomes a secondary protagonist and when does their story start?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,338 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample