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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 does Jeremy say Mattie treats him?

2. What is Seth having difficulty finding at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 3?

3. Why doesn't Seth want to tell Loomis where Martha is?

4. How long does Seth say it would take him to teach Bynum to make a pot?

5. Who is Sally?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Reuben say the ghost he saw was like in real life?

2. What was Bynum's first reaction to finding his song?

3. What is Seth's attitude to the black men coming to the city to find work and freedom?

4. What does Mattie tell Loomis when he says he needs to find a starting place?

5. What does Molly say about her father?

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

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

8. What does Loomis say that the wave in his vision washed up?

9. What does Bynum say about to Mattie luck?

10. What does Bynum say he sees about Loomis?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the role of music throughout the play.

1) What role does the Juba play? What type of music is this? What is its origin and meaning, and why does it make Loomis angry?

2) What role does Jeremy's music play in the story? Why does he carry his guitar with him? What does his music say about his character?

3) What role does the song "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" play in the story? Is it important that Joe Turner's name is embodied in song? Why does the name come to Bynum through a song?

4) How does the Binding Song or Bynum's father's Healing Song relate to the role of music in the play?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the losing of the self in the play.

1) How does Loomis lose himself and his identity in the play? Why can't he reclaim it?

2) What is the significance of a person's Song, as Bynum describes it, and how does losing one's Song equate to losing one's self?

3) How can characters find themselves? Which characters are still lost at the end of the play?

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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