View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the narrator describe the students as they enter the chapel?

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

3. What is the narrator afraid of losing?

4. Why is the narrator offended by the man behind the drugstore counter?

5. How is the narrator's invisibility related to his residence?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator say he is invisible?

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

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

4. What final action does the hospital take to ensure the narrator's silence?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 2

The Brotherhood is concerned about its own purposes and really has no interest in the issues of eviction of black people from their homes or in other racial issues in Harlem. Write an essay about the Brotherhood in which you locate and explain hints that they are using the narrator merely as a tool for their own purpose. What is their purpose? Why does the narrator fail to recognize it until too late to prevent a riot?

Essay Topic 3

Compare/contrast the leaders of the Brotherhood with Dr. Bledsoe and Mr. Norton. How does each group accomplish or fail to accomplish their ultimate goals?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 899 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample