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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 Earline say PaPaLaBas mixes concrete events with?

2. Who is the anti-Jes Grew president?

3. What does Carl Jung say the Great War was useful for?

4. When was the last time Jes Grew flared up?

5. How does James Weldon Johnson justify cannibalism in Haiti?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when the Mayor of New Orleans responds to the Jes Grew outbreak?

2. What is the meaning when Safecracker Gould says that “the dances were difficult to write down” (p. 103)?

3. What does Reed say the Jes Grew is seeking?

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

5. Describe the confrontation between Buddy Jackson and Schlitz.

6. What does the Jes Grew want?

7. What is PaPaLaBas’ practice?

8. Describe the trolley car driver’s strange experience on account of the black freighter.

9. What critique does Abdul Hamid make of PaPaLaBas?

10. Describe Nathan Brown’s status in the black arts scene.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate your own reading of Mumbo Jumbo—did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 2

Identify the most important plot points in Mumbo Jumbo. What is at stake in each of these moments? What possibilities do these moments present, and how are those possibilities channeled into specific actions or events? How does the plot chart its course among other alternative or possible plots?

Essay Topic 3

What makes Mumbo Jumbo an American novel? How does Reed define America, and how is his definition of America sustained throughout the action of Mumbo Jumbo? How does Reed account for competing visions of what America is?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 915 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample