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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the man in Emerson's office imply after reading the letter given him by the narrator?

2. What unexpected sight does the narrator see in New York?

3. What does Mr. Norton give to Trueblood?

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

5. What do some of the black men carry?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What surprises the narrator upon his arrival in Harlem?

4. What mistake does the veteran doctor predict the narrator will make?

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

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

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

8. Describe Dr. Bledsoe.

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

10. What does the narrator expect from his visit with Mr. Bates?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain why the Brotherhood chooses the narrator. What factors have made him particularly vulnerable to their approach? How do his own intentions change as he begins working with them?

Essay Topic 2

Early in the novel, the narrator endures a non-surgical pre-frontal lobotomy that is supposed to erase his memories, make him a more pliable worker, and prevent him from bringing charges against the factory. He does change after the experience, but not exactly in the way usually expected of a lobotomy. Discuss the changes that begin taking place. What changes are permanent? What changes seem to occur gradually? Do they make the narrator a better man?

Essay Topic 3

What is illusion? Can illusion be imposed upon a person without his consent? Can illusion be chosen so effectively that a person believes his own fancies? Discuss which characters are choosing to be deluded. Is the delusion helping or hurting their cause?

(see the answer keys)

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