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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the narrator want to do in Chapter 12?
(a) get a new job
(b) marry Mary Rambo
(c) spend time alone
(d) make speeches

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

3. Who else is on the bus to New York?
(a) another student
(b) no one
(c) Mr. Trueblood
(d) the veteran doctor

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How is the paint symbolic?

2. Why does the narrator dump slush on a man's head?

3. How did the narrator get invited to participate in the Battle Royal?

4. What revelation does the "Tom Show" provide for Ellison?

5. Why does Mary Rambo want to take the narrator home?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ellison mean when he says that for African Americans, all wars are "wars within wars."

2. Why do the grandfather's dying words make the narrator feel guilty about receiving praise?

3. Explain the irony of the sign "Keep American Pure with Liberty Paints."

4. What does Mary Rambo want the narrator to do?

5. What does the veteran at the Golden Day understand that the narrator does not?

6. What favor does the young Mr. Emerson do for the narrator?

7. How does the setting in chapter 5 provide additional foreshadowing?

8. Why does the trip to the Trueblood house make the narrator feel uncomfortable?

9. Why does the drug store have the pork chop and grits special?

10. Why do the people at the Men's House treat him with hostility?

(see the answer keys)

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