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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 is ironic about the narrator's dance with Emma?
(a) He is the only black man she dances with at the party.
(b) He had at first refused the offer to dance with her.
(c) She is the first white woman he ever danced with.
(d) The veteran doctor had predicted that the narrator would dance with a white woman.

2. What awakens the narrator in Chapter 15?
(a) People banging on the steam line because there is no heat.
(b) The smell of breakfast cooking.
(c) Someone pounding at the door.
(d) The sound of people talking.

3. Why is Brother Westrum opposed to the piece of chain on the narrator's desk?
(a) Because it shows difference instead of unity
(b) Because it shows a tendency to cling to the past
(c) Because it symbolically denies the possibility of equality
(d) Because it is a reminder of slavery

4. The narrator believes the Brotherhood will destroy itself. Why?
(a) Because it has no real direction
(b) Because it is blind to its own lack of real purpose
(c) Because the members are fighting among themselves
(d) Because it is hurting the people it pretends to help

5. What truth is revealed about the Brotherhood in Chapter 22?
(a) That they have no real purpose
(b) That they are really only interested in black people
(c) That they care nothing about the people
(d) That their goal is to use black politics to further their own interests

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator get out of playing along in Sybil's rape fantasy?

2. What is it that people like Jack, Bledsoe and Norton have refused to do?

3. Although the narrator may not realize it, he is searching for

4. Who does the narrator plan to use to destroy the Brotherhood

5. Why does the narrator run after making his speech on behalf of the elderly couple?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the narrator's work on the "woman question" cut short?

2. What is the narrator's intention in speaking up for the black couple who have been evicted?

3. Explain why the "woman question" is typical of the Brotherhood's approach to issues.

4. What strikes the narrator as the profound truth about the riot?

5. Identify several mistakes that the narrator makes in his first assigned speech in Harlem.

6. What epiphany has the narrator experienced regarding his race?

7. Why do Dupre and his men choose a particular building to burn?

8. Brother Jack refers to Clifton as Brutus? How does the metaphor fit the situation?

9. Explain the initial results of the narrator's strategy of "yessing" them to death.

10. Why does Jack become angry with the man who asks the narrator to sing a "spiritual"?

(see the answer keys)

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