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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. How has the Wallflower Order figured out how to undermine the Jes Grew?

2. How does Biff Musclewhite explain Charlotte’s confusion about what happened last night?

3. What miracle did Osiris perform?

4. What does Earline’s scarf turn into, when Black Herman throws it on the floor?

5. How does Reed describe the interior of the black freighter?

Short Essay Questions

1. What request does Earline make to PaPaLaBas?

2. What happens when the box with the Book is brought into the party?

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

4. What does Isis want from Moses?

5. What does Battraville say haunts White culture?

6. What does Abdul Hamid’s letter to PaPaLaBas say about the Book?

7. What is PaPaLaBas’ explanation of Earline’s seduction of the trolley car driver?

8. What strategy does Mellon propose for thwarting the Mu’tafikah?

9. What does PaPaLaBas say is the future of the Jes Grew?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Would you recommend Mumbo Jumbo? For what purposes would you recommend Mumbo Jumbo, and what kinds of readers would you recommend it for? What other book would you recommend that would cover the same material or tell the same story in a different way?

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 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?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 868 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample