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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. Who had predicted the narrator's relationship with the white woman?

2. Why do certain members of the Brotherhood consider that narrator's speech unsatisfactory?

3. How does the narrator portray himself at the end of Chapter 22?

4. What is happening in Harlem?

5. Why does the narrator consider his funeral speech a failure?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. What is meant by "white fever"?

10. Describe one of the roles played by Rinehart.

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

The narrator's grandfather tries to explain how he himself had failed the black people. What does the narrator initially not understand about the concept of "yessing" them to death? How does he eventually understand and adopt the idea? What conclusion does he finally draw about appearing to agree while actually plotting against someone?

Essay Topic 3

The African American people--at whatever geographic location they are found in the novel--seem to have little hope of a future that is equal to the whites in terms of wealth, status, education, or upward mobility. Whether they are in the north or the south, the forces that impede progress have much in common. For example, Norton requires a barely "post-slavery" recipient, that is, someone who needs the help he imagines he is giving, in order for his endeavors to have any meaning. Similarly, numerous philosophers have suggested that we need the poor and downtrodden among us in order to have a subject upon which to practice charity. Discuss several different ways in which this attitude is expressed in the novel. Show what this approach of using a particular group target upon which to practice an ideology accomplishes both for the subject group and for the "charitable" or practicing entity.

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