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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. Who notices the unusual black ship at the pier?

2. How are the times described at the beginning of Chapter 53?

3. What ornaments the box in which the Book is kept?

4. How does PaPaLaBas say Osiris’ brother viewed him?

5. How does Battraville describe the whites’ war against Haiti?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Benoit Battraville say that the Americans are the ones to ask about the Jes Grew?

2. How are Hank Rollings’ objections to Hinkle Von Vampton and Safecracker Gould’s arrest get resolved?

3. What prevents Hierophant 1 from taking poison?

4. What solution does Mr. Mellon propose for containing the Jes Grew?

5. Describe Woodrow Wilson Jefferson’s departure for home.

6. What is the meaning of the chart inserted in the historical account leading up to Hinkle Von Vampton and Safecracker Gould’s arrest?

7. What does Battraville say is the difference between VooDoo in America and VooDoo in Haiti?

8. Who is gathered at the Irvington-on-Hudson party?

9. What request does Earline make to PaPaLaBas?

10. What happens when Moses read the Work to the people?

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

When is Mumbo Jumbo most itself? What is its characteristic passage, or moment? What makes that moment or passage the most representative of the book as a whole? Are there any places where the book seems to depart from its typical self, as if to become a different book?

Essay Topic 3

Use this book as a meditation on the value of a five-star rating system. Is a five-star system sufficient to a book like this? Would you need to have sub-topics for the rating system, for plot, characterization, language, etc? What other sub-topics would you need? What value or importance gets lost in a five-star scale? Design a scale that would be better for this book.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 908 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample