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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the doctor mean when he says they "picked poor robin clean"?
(a) They have damaged the narrator's personality
(b) They have eliminated any possibility of getting a job.
(c) They have taken all the narrator's money.
(d) They have completely destroyed the narrator's memories

2. What, ironically, makes the narrator's white bosses distrustful of him?
(a) his color
(b) his lack of experience
(c) his background and education
(d) his attitude

3. How does the narrator get past the drunken vet in the road?
(a) He pays the vet a bribe.
(b) He claims to be someone of importance.
(c) He tells him he has General Pershing in the car.
(d) He pretends he is about to run over the vet.

4. Ellison's original story was written about which of the following?
(a) A sharecropper
(b) An African American author
(c) An African American pilot
(d) A slave

5. Dr. Bledsoe is preoccupied with what?
(a) getting even
(b) keeping his position
(c) preventing Mr. Norton from expelling the narrator
(d) power

6. Why does the narrator have difficulty getting along on his first two jobs?
(a) He is not correctly educated for the job
(b) He is too highly educated for the job
(c) He doesn't understand or fit in the blue-collar/union world
(d) He is the only black person on the job

7. According to Ellison, which of the following is important for perseverance?
(a) courage
(b) tolerance
(c) laughter
(d) determination

8. Why is the narrator offended by the man behind the drugstore counter?
(a) The man wants to see his money before serving him.
(b) The man does not give him what he orders.
(c) The man assumes will order the special of pork chops, grits, one egg, biscuits, and coffee.
(d) The man overcharges him.

9. What does the narrator notice about the whites in the city?
(a) The hardly seem to notice him.
(b) They are very nice to him.
(c) They are rude to him.
(d) They appear to be making fun of him.

10. What revelation does the "Tom Show" provide for Ellison?
(a) It reveals the futility of fighting agains the majority.
(b) It convinces him that history will be repeated
(c) It convinces him that history cannot be changed.
(d) It shows him that history is a part of the present

11. What kind of speeches has the narrator given from the stage in the chapel?
(a) Phony speeches with notes supplied by white men.
(b) Speeches that expressed his frustration in cultural symbolism.
(c) Genuine speeches that expressed how he felt.
(d) Speeches that flattered the whites.

12. What does Trueblood's story suggest about the white men at the jail house?
(a) They didn't believe his story.
(b) They were angry and kept him in town as an example of how not to behave.
(c) They secretly enjoyed hearing his story.
(d) They were horrified by his story and tried to get him to move.

13. How does the narrator's grandfather regard his own meekness?
(a) He considers himself a traitor.
(b) He is proud of his choices.
(c) He considers himself a coward.
(d) He considers himself a victim

14. According to Mr. Brockway, what happened when the company tried to replace him?
(a) The union went to bat for him.
(b) No one else would take the job
(c) The other workers went on strike
(d) All the paint went bad

15. Why does the narrator dump slush on a man's head?
(a) The man greeted him with hostility.
(b) He thinks the man is Bledsoe.
(c) The man insulted him.
(d) The man was preaching nonsense.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is the vet going?

2. Bledsoe tells the narrator that he should not worry about

3. Where does Bledsoe tell the narrator to go?

4. What does the narrator credit for his "call to action"?

5. What does the narrator feel was his primary fault 20 years earlier?

(see the answer keys)

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