View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is one thing about Black kids Moth has noticed goes over state lines?

2. Who lives in the First World of Sani's stories?

3. What does Moth think Sani sometimes smells like?

4. Who is Mother's brother?

5. What happens the night of Moth's party that upsets her?

Short Essay Questions

1. What part of the moth's life cycle does Moth say is a miracle, and why?

2. What does Moth articulate as the significance of names, in general, in Part I?

3. What can Moth hear her mother saying on her dance recordings from competitions?

4. What does Moth do every morning as an offering for the ancestors?

5. Why does Moth say deadness does not bother her?

6. Why does Moth's grandfather say she dances so well?

7. Why does Moth want to throw a massive party after Aunt Jack leaves?

8. What does Moth witness happening behind Sani's front window when she stops by his house?

9. What does Moth mean when she says she is living "a secondhand life" (5)?

10. What happened to Moth two summers before the start of the novel?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What connections or relationships do you think McBride seeks to draw between art and pain in this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

What role does art play - Sani's music, and Moth's dancing - in the instant attraction these two characters feel towards each other? Write an essay explaining your answers.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay analyzing McBride's use of extended metaphor throughout this novel, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 616 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample