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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 is in the narrator's briefcase?

2. How does the narrator plan to overcome the white men of the Brotherhood?

3. Whose words does the narrator contemplate as proof that he can have two identities and still be successful?

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

5. What surprises the narrator in relation to the riot?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe one of the roles played by Rinehart.

2. What was the narrator's real problem, and how has he settled it?

3. Explain the irony of the figurine owned by Mary.

4. What puzzling irony does the narrator tell us about the human race?

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

6. In what way could the new shoes be symbolic?

7. Why does Brother Jack defend the narrator at this point?

8. How do we know at this point that the lobotomy has not been completely successful in changing the narrator's personality?

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

10. What is the primary problem with the instructions given to the narrator to gather more members?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the women in the novel: Mary, Emma, Sybil, the nuns, and the white woman at the rally. What role do the women play in the narrator's development?

Essay Topic 2

Early in the novel, the graduating black boys are deliberately used as cruel sport for the white men at a club. Norton is at the club with all the other white men. Norton does not care about the black boys any more than anyone else does. Therefore, what is his purpose at the college? Explain the things that Mr. Norton and Brother Jack have in common.

Essay Topic 3

On several different occasions, the narrator speaks directly to the reader, ending in his epilogue with "perhaps I speak for you...." Who do you think Ellison imagined as his most likely audience? If the various groups of people in the book could be allegorical representations of cultural groups--i.e. college administrators, blue collar employers, political party leaders, low income minority groups, etc.--what message would they perceive in the novel? Choose two or three different groups and tell how the story might speak to each of them.

(see the answer keys)

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