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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 Reverend Hickman react when he sees Senator Sunraider attacked?

2. How long does reverend Hickman wait at the wounded senator's bedside?

3. Whose idea is it to have the young senator pop out of a coffin during services?

4. How much time left does the senator think he has after he has been attacked?

5. What does Hickman say to Senator Sunraider's assassin?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who does the young boy in the senator's final hallucination represent?

2. After he is shot, what does Senator Sunraider vaguely see by his bedside?

3. Why does Bliss think his teddy bear is so brave?

4. What does Bliss's obsession with the image of the movie actress symbolize?

5. While lying on his deathbed, in what ways does the senator remember about the time he spent making movies?

6. How does the senator remember his costume feeling as he lay in the coffin waiting for his cue?

7. What does the senator remember as surprising him the most about the woman who interrupts the large Juneteenth service?

8. When Senator Sunraider is remembering being bullied as a child, he described himself as reproaching the bully with "all the four horses galloping in my eyes." To what horses is he referring?

9. Because of Bliss, what kinds of accusations are periodically leveled at the reverend?

10. In the final chapter of the novel, how is it clear that the senator is in a hallucinatory state?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss at least 2 pros and 2 cons of leaving a character motherless in a novel, using Bliss as an example for each pro and each con. Make sure to use specifics from Juneteenth to support your arguments.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the tone of Juneteenth. What is the tone for the novel overall? What three literary devices does Ellison use to create this tone? Make sure to use direct evidence from the text to support your position.

Essay Topic 3

There are many instances of tension in Juneteenth. Choose at least one example and discuss what literary devices Ellison uses the create this tension.

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