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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. Where did Jeremy win his dollar?

2. What is Bertha doing at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 2?

3. Who does Bertha say she gets along with?

4. What fine did Jeremy have to pay?

5. What does Bynum give Mattie?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Reuben imagine it would be like if Eugene's ghost came back?

3. What is Molly's reaction to the death of Mattie's two babies?

4. Describe what Bynum tells Jeremy about touching.

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

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

7. How does Loomis describe his wife to Selig?

8. Describe what Seth sees out the window at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 1. What is Seth's reaction to it?

9. What does Seth report that Loomis is doing, after he's left the boardinghouse?

10. What is Jeremy's initial reaction to Molly Cunningham?

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 importance of financial independence to characters in the story.

1) Seth wants to gain financial independence by starting his own business. What stops him from achieving his goal? Why is this an important goal for him?

2) Molly doesn't want to be "bought." She wants to be independent, while not working. What kind of independence does she achieve? How does money play into her independence?

3) Why does Mattie continue to work while she is with Jeremy? Does her working keep them separate?

Essay Topic 3

Throughout the play, there are forces that bind people and forces that tear people apart. Discuss these forces.

1) What types of things bind people to each other and to places and lives in the play? Are these things good or bad, or are some good and some bad? How do negative binding forces (like the chains of slavery) affect the other things that bind people together or to elements of their lives?

2) What types of things tear people apart in the play? Are these things good or bad, or are some good and some bad? What role might tearing apart have in building identity?

(see the answer keys)

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