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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 does Reed say Africans have fallen in love with, in North America?

2. What makes Hinkle Von Vampton’s boss think that he is losing his marbles?

3. What are Berbelang and the others wearing when they come for Biff Musclewhite?

4. Who is providing Berbelang’s gang with supplies and equipment?

5. How is African-American painting described in the newspaper?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Woodrow Wilson Jefferson end up being hired by the Benign Monster?

2. How does Biff Musclewhite free himself after the heist?

3. What is the status of The Text?

4. What kind of people did Langston Hughes say were popular in the 1920s in the Harlem Renaissance?

5. What changes does Peter Pick recommend for the Plantation House scene?

6. What predicament does Charlotte find herself in with regard to Biff Musclewhite?

7. What does Berbelang say is the guilt Faust carries with him?

8. How does Black Herman cure Earline of the possession by the scent of the lavender from the Black Plume?

9. Why does Woodrow Wilson Jefferson leave for New York?

10. What is Warren G. Harding’s role in Mumbo Jumbo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What would it mean to ‘write down the dance,’ in Mumbo Jumbo? What efforts are made, to record the gestures of the Jes Grew, and why does dancing elude and representation? How does Ishmael Reed address the irony of writing a novel about a dance that cannot be recorded?

Essay Topic 2

Who is the audience for Mumbo Jumbo? What is the ideal reader for Mumbo Jumbo likely to think about the book’s main topics? How does this book try to affect the reader? What is it trying to teach him or her, or get him or her to do?

Essay Topic 3

In what ways is Mumbo Jumbo relevant to contemporary readers? What contemporary issues are in play in the book, and how would the book contribute to contemporary discussion? Cite specific discussions from contemporary sources, and cite specific instances from the book, that describe its contemporary relevance.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 922 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample