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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The image of the slave owners bidding for a naked girl is
(a) something the narrator recalls from his childhood
(b) a picture the narrator had seen in a book
(c) something that happened to the narrator's father
(d) a vison induced by marijuana

2. Why does the Reverend Barbee trip over Dr. Bledsoe?
(a) Reverend Barbee is blind.
(b) Dr. Bledsoe forgets to pull his legs back
(c) Someone distracts Reverend Barbee
(d) Reverend Barbee isn't watching where he is going.

3. Where does the road in the college town ultimately lead?
(a) To the college
(b) To a mental institution
(c) To a statue
(d) To a chapel

4. What does Dr. Bledsoe call the narrator?
(a) a liar
(b) an educated fool
(c) a traitor
(d) a slave

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

6. What would the narrator like to add to his "hole"?
(a) a phonograph player
(b) a TV set
(c) four more radio-phonographs
(d) a kitchen

7. What was the topic of the narrator's graduation day speech?
(a) Racial pride
(b) Equality
(c) Courage
(d) Humilty

8. What two groups of people must pay the price for being irresponsible?
(a) sleepwalkers and dreamers
(b) dreamer and cowards
(c) lazy people and cowards
(d) idealists and cowards

9. What makes the narrator homesick when he first gets to New York?
(a) a message from Mr. Norton
(b) the letters he carries
(c) a Gideon Bible
(d) the sight of other black people

10. What mistake does the narrator make at Liberty Paints?
(a) He adds too much pigment to the paint
(b) He uses the wrong tank of paint
(c) He adds paint remover instead of the pigment to the paint
(d) He does not paint the sample correctly.

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

12. Why does the vet want the narrator to hear his story?
(a) So the narrator will persuade Mr. Norton to give a donation
(b) So the narrator will take up the cause of the vets
(c) So the narrator will not become another casualty
(d) So the narrator will return to the Golden Day

13. The narrator's pondering of his upcoming punishment is an example of what literary device?
(a) suspense
(b) symbolism
(c) foreshadowing
(d) allusion

14. The narrator considers himself an invisible man because ____________________.
(a) people can't see him
(b) people subconsciously ignore him
(c) people don't understand him
(d) people refuse to see him with their inner eyes

15. What bit of advice from the young Mr. Emerson does the narrator actually heed?
(a) to realize that he has no identity
(b) to call Liberty Paints and ask for a job
(c) to return to the college
(d) to forget about Mr. Bledsoe

Short Answer Questions

1. Ellison's primary struggle in writing the book was

2. According to the vet, who controls "things"?

3. What does the narrator want to do in Chapter 12?

4. The concept of the character as invisible is symbolic of which of the following conditions?

5. What is the real purpose of the Reverend's speech?

(see the answer keys)

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