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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. How much does Seth figure out Selig owes him for six pots, subtracting what Seth owes Selig?

2. What does Seth suggest Herald Loomis might do?

3. What does Mattie say about moving in to the boardinghouse?

4. In what strange way does Loomis start to speak?

5. What is Selig's nickname?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Loomis act when he first enters in Act 2, Scene 2?

2. What does Loomis ask about God?

3. What is Seth's opinion of Bynum's behavior with Loomis after the Juba?

4. What is Molly's opinion about Mattie's job?

5. What does Seth say to Loomis, when Loomis first enters in Act 2, Scene 2?

6. Why does Jeremy not want to enter a guitar-playing contest?

7. When Bynum presses Loomis, saying "then...what happened," what does Loomis tell about his vision?

8. What does Bertha says Bynum has been doing all morning at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 2?

9. How did Selig get in the people-finding business?

10. Why doesn't Seth like Herald Loomis?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Trauma is the enduring effects of an injury, such as slavery, which leaves a generations-long mark on African-Americans. Discuss trauma in the play.

1) How has Herald Loomis' trauma from being enslaved affected him and his life? Do any of the other characters affected a similar trauma?

2) How do the cultural repercussions of slavery affect Jeremy?

3) How do the cultural repercussions of slavery affect the women in the play and their relationships with men?

4) How is trauma from Herald Loomis' experience passed down to Zonia?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the concept of being trapped in a relationship in the play.

1) Why do men leave women in the play? Why does Jack leave Mattie? Why did Bynum leave his woman?

2) What makes a character stay in a relationship? Is a relationship always a kind of entrapment in the play?

3) Why do women want men to stay in the play? How is Molly's attitude different than Mattie's? Would Molly feel trapped in a relationship?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss religion in the play.

1) What is the significance of the washing in blood that appears both in Bynum's vision and in the end of the play? What religious significance does it have?

2) Compare the Christian religion of the characters to Bynum's spiritualism. What parallels do they have? How are they different? Where does each arise from?

3) Why does Loomis rail against religion? What significance is there to the fact that Martha followed her church away from Loomis?

(see the answer keys)

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