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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 does Emperor Jones throw into the bushes?

2. How do the figures that Emperor Jones sees in the forest move?

3. What does Emperor Jones do after he shoots at the apparition in the third forest scene?

4. How does Smithers say that Emperor Jones came into his position?

5. Which literary style describes the scenes in which Emperor Jones sees apparitions?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the figure in the sixth forest scene's apparition communicate to Emperor Jones?

2. Contrast Emperor Jones' status in the first scene with his status at the end of the sixth forest scene.

3. How does Emperor Jones dispel the apparition in Act 1, Scene 7?

4. Describe the setting for Scene 6, the fifth forest scene.

5. Describe the apparition Emperor Jones sees in the sixth forest scene.

6. What does Emperor Jones see in the fifth forest scene?

7. How does Jones break the spell of the apparition in the fifth forest scene?

8. What is the significance of Emperor Jones' clothing in the fifth forest scene?

9. Describe Emperor Jones' state of mind in the second scene.

10. How long has Emperor Jones been walking when the second forest scene begins?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the moral of Emperor Jones? Does the play teach a moral? If you think it does, describe how that lesson is presented. If you think that it does not, what does it teach us, if not a moral?

Essay Topic 2

Emperor Jones is almost offered up as a sacrifice to the crocodile. What else is sacrificed in the play? Describe three sacrifices. What is given up? What does the sacrificer hope to obtain in return?

Essay Topic 3

How was Emperor Jones received in America when it premiered in 1929? What does it tell us about America in 1929 that it got the responses it did? What does it tell us about how blacks were treated in America at the time?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 653 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample