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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 character ultimately decides to allow John's body to float down the river once it is obvious that he is dead?

2. The road that passes in front of Isis's house stretches north toward Sanford, Florida and south toward which city?

3. What adjective does Isis's grandmother apply to Isis while warning her to stop sitting atop the gate post?

4. What action do Isis and her brother Joel plan to do to their maternal grandmother before she wakes up and stops them?

5. In what year was Zora Neale Hurston's famous novel Their Eyes Were Watching God published?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the end of Bentley's life.

2. Who is Beau Diddely?

3. How does Joe Kanty meet his end in the story entitled "Spunk"?

4. What contrast between the white culture and the black culture does Hurston highlight within the opening of "Black Death"?

5. In what way is gambling shown to negatively impact families within the story entitled "The Conversion of Sam"?

6. Discuss an instance in the collection when Hurston emphasizes the way in which white people exoticize black people.

7. In what way is Hurston a bit of an anomaly within the literary movement with which she is associated?

8. In what way do Alfred and Matty act as foils to one another within the story "John Redding Goes to Sea"?

9. What does Spunk's Stetson hat represent within the story entitled "Spunk"?

10. Discuss the significane of the final line of the story entitled "The Conversion of Sam."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the theme of invisibility portrayed in Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick? Examine Hurston's treatment of and messages regarding invisibility throughout the work.

Essay Topic 2

In what way does Hurston utilize irony within the text? Discuss at least three uses of irony within Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick and explore each instance's connection to larger themes contained within the piece.

Essay Topic 3

How are the topics of romantic relationships, love, and sex treated within the collection Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick and how does their treatment relate to the collection's depicted messages?

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