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. What area does the author describe in springtime?

2. Who sits on every street corner, according to the author?

3. How does the white men refer to the best hunter?

4. How does Violet meet Joe?

5. Why is Joe jealous of the young men on the street?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe how Dorcas's mother dies.

2. Describe the time Joe sees Dorcas for the very first time.

3. In Chapter Five, what does Joe think of when he imagines Dorcas?

4. Describe the different things Joe and Violet see in the picture of Dorcas.

5. Describe the first time Joe officially meets Dorcas.

6. Why is Violet known as "Violent" Trace in town?

7. Describe Violet's "crazy episodes" as they are presented in Chapter One.

8. In Chapter Four, why does True Belle come to Virginia to care for her grandchildren?

9. In Chapter One, how does the narrator describe Violet Trace?

10. In Chapter Five, how does the author describe Harlem in the springtime?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Briefly summarize the incident when Malvonne finds the mail behind the refrigerator. What does she do in response? Why does she spend time doing these sorts of things, and what irony do you find in the events?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Violet decide she never wants to have children? What impact does this have on her marriage? How does her desire to have children change throughout the book and why?

Essay Topic 3

What is significant about Dorcas's clothespin dolls? What role do they play throughout Dorcas's life? Why do you think Morrison chooses this particular symbol?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 544 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample