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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. What kind of job does A.Z. have?

2. At what moment during church services does the young senator pop out of the coffin?

3. What animal does Senator Sunraider think he sees while giving his last speech?

4. Who is Bowlegs?

5. Who is Laly?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Hickman consider his permanent home?

2. Why is Sister Georgia hesitant to hug Bliss as a child?

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

4. In what ways does Senator Sunraider, while in his hospital bed, remember his childhood?

5. Why is the group turned away from Senator Sunraider's office in D.C.?

6. What kinds of literary techniques does Ellison use when describing Senator Sunraider's childhood memories as he lay dying in his hospital bed?

7. 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?

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

9. When remembering his trip with the crazed woman to the jailhouse, who does Reverend Hickman confess he should have been praying for instead?

10. Why is Bliss so obsessed about the image of the movie actress?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast the characters of Sister Georgia and Sister Bearmasher.

Essay Topic 2

Describe three literary devices Ellison uses in the scene where Bliss's mother comes to Hickman's house to give birth. Be sure to use specific quotations from the novel as examples of each literary device.

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 593 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample