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. Of what does the vet accuse Mr. Norton?

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

3. What does Trueblood's story suggest about the white men at the jail house?

4. What does Dr. Bledsoe call the narrator?

5. According to Ellison, for what have African Americans historically had to fight?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. Why does Mr. Norton give Jim Trueblood $100?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an analysis of the various locations in which the narrator lives, i.e, the college, Harlem, in his new apartment, and finally in the "hole." Discuss how each location is a reflection of his changing attitude/character.

Essay Topic 2

Someone has said that heresy is simply truth carried to an extreme. Explain, therefore, how either diversity or unity could be carried to an extreme, misused, and thus become heretical.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 813 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample