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

2. What does the narrator see as he is watching people leave the chapel?
(a) Dr. Bledsoe's cadillac
(b) The veteran doctor
(c) Mr. Trueblood's car
(d) Mr. Norton's car

3. According to the vet, what does a white woman symbolize?
(a) possessions
(b) love
(c) sexuality
(d) freedom

4. How did the narrator get invited to participate in the Battle Royal?
(a) He volunteered because it looked interesting.
(b) He happened to be at the hotel to give a speech to white men.
(c) He thought it was part of the award.
(d) The people who arranged the speech planned to include him.

5. How is the narrator's invisibility related to his residence?
(a) The white residents simply ignore him.
(b) He lives in a building for whites and uses their electricity because they cannot conceive of his presence.
(c) The whites allow him to stay there because they consider him unimportant.
(d) He is able to come and go without being noticed.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Ellison's original story was written about which of the following?

3. How does the narrator regard Mr. Bledsoe?

4. The image of the slave owners bidding for a naked girl is

5. Ellison himself was a member of which branch of the military?

Short Essay Questions

1. In what way, according to the veteran, is the narrator likely to become a casualty?

2. What lie does Dr. Bledsoe expect the narrator to tell?

3. What does Ellison mean by "benign neglect"?

4. How has the narrator ended up in the factory hospital? How is he being treated once he gets there?

5. Why is Harlem a particularly appropriate setting for the novel?

6. Of what "irresponsibility" are sleepwalkers and dreamers accused?

7. What is the objective of Rev. Barbee's sermon?

8. Why was the narrator doomed to fail at the paint factory?

9. How was the narrator's graduation speech a betrayal of black people?

10. What does the narrator notice while waiting for his appointment with the trustees?

(see the answer keys)

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