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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. Why do Lucas and Hughes spend most of their evenings as guests in black households?

2. What happens when Hughes wakes the next morning?

3. Where does Langston stay the following summer in order to complete his first novel?

4. With what is Hughes' poetry often infused?

5. What does Hughes purchase?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is significant about "Don't You Want to Be Free?"

2. What does Langston do with the money he earns from the movie?

3. What does Langston do with a four hundred dollar prize for "Not Without Laughter?"

4. What does Langston do when he returns to Harlem?

5. What does Langston do upon returning to the United States?

6. What does Langston do after his first year at Lincoln?

7. What does Langston do while in Carmel, California?

8. What does Langston do when he travels to New Orleans?

9. Why does Hughes travel to Spain?

10. What happens to the movie for which Hughes had been asked to become a writer?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mary McLeod Bethune helps Langston Hughes.

Part 1) Who is Mary McLeod Bethune? How does Langston know her?

Part 2) How does she influence Langston's life?

Part 3) How have those people with whom Langston has come into contact influence his life and work?

Essay Topic 2

Hughes is a sociologist.

Part 1) How do you know this?

Part 2) How does his curiosity about society get him into trouble? Why does it get him into trouble?

Part 3) How does he use this interest in sociology affect his poetry, as well as his popularity as an artist?

Essay Topic 3

Hughes explores many different media.

Part 1) In what media does Hughes experiment? Why does he do this?

Part 2) How do these explorations affect his poetry? Why?

Part 3) How do these explorations affect Hughes' career as an artist? Why are these explorations significant?

(see the answer keys)

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