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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. Which of the following countries reportedly recognizes Biafra in response to starvation therein?

2. Which of the following reportedly enables the loss of a baby?

3. The phrase “the vulnerabilities he wore so openly knotted as his throat like a tie” (304) offers an example of which of the following?

4. The phrase “onye ocha” carries what meaning in the text?

5. What news does Olanna hope for when Odenigbo visits her apartment after his infidelity?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reason is given for many African countries refusing to recognize or support Biafra?

2. What, ultimately, is the obunigwe?

3. What reasoning is given for resisting Ugwu as a teacher?

4. What lures Ugwu outside the first time a conscription attempt is made on him?

5. What reasons does Ugwu give for wanting to see an Indian film after the festival with Richard?

6. What reasons does Ugwu give for disliking the relief food?

7. What event spurs Olanna to move back in with Odenigbo?

8. What reasons does Ugwu note for thinking Muokelu is a poor teacher?

9. Why does Olanna note the upstairs living room in her parents’ house is called the ladies’ parlor?

10. How does Olanna describe Muokelu?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider the poem Ugwu notes having memorized in Chapter 4:

I can’t forget that I’m bereft
Of all the pleasant sights they see,
Which the Piper also promised me.
For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
Joining the town and just at hand,
Where waters rushed and fruit trees grew,
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
And everything was strange and new. (105-06)

What resonance does the poem have in its context in the novel? How does that resonance emerge?

Essay Topic 2

Of the divisions of Half of A Yellow Sun present in its published edition (this guide breaks the long fourth part), the longest is Part 4: The Late Sixties; the shortest is Part 3: The Early Sixties. Does the disparity in length reflect a disparity in narrative importance? How or how not?

Essay Topic 3

Consider the poem Ugwu notes having memorized in Chapter 4:

I can’t forget that I’m bereft
Of all the pleasant sights they see,
Which the Piper also promised me.
For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
Joining the town and just at hand,
Where waters rushed and fruit trees grew,
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
And everything was strange and new. (105-06)

Conduct a close reading of the poem. That is, analyze its structure and internal references to explicate its meaning.

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