Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. "Partus sequitur ventrem" was a legal doctrine adopted widely into the laws of slavery in the American colonies. What did this law dictate?
2. What is John's response when Sarny asks him in Chapter 3, "Why they be cutting our thumbs off if we learn to read--if that's all it is?"
3. By current estimates, approximately how many Africans were shipped across the Atlantic during the slave trade?
4. How does Mammy notate the ages of the slave children that she raises?
5. What word used in Chapter 3 refers to the process of preparing corn for eating?
Short Essay Questions
1. What was Mammy's response when she discovered Sarny copying the symbols from the grain sack into the dirt when she was a child? Why did she react in this manner?
2. How would you describe the dialect and language style established in Chapter 1?
3. What is foreshadowed by Sarny's description of the penny that she once found in Chapter 2?
4. How is Sarny's relationship with Mammy illustrated in Chapter 1? How does Mammy feel about the other children she cares for?
5. How does the author illustrate Sarny's only encounter with money in Chapter 2?
6. What does Sarny describe thinking about as the others sleep in the slave quarters at night in Chapter 1?
7. What job or jobs does Sarny do around the plantation in Chapter 1?
8. How is Sarny's birth and early childhood described in Chapter 1? Are Sarny's experiences common for slaves at this time?
9. How does Mr. Waller behave toward John as he brings him into the plantation in Chapter 3?
10. How is Sarny's character introduced to the reader in Chapter 1? What does Sarny say brought Nightjohn to her?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss Sarny’s growing anxieties when she experiences her first menstrual period in Chapter 7. What does this event signify for Sarny? Why does Sarny hide it, and for how long do you think she will be able to hide it?
Essay Topic 2
Discuss the meaning and the value of money as seen through Sarny’s eyes in Nightjohn. What does Sarny remark about the monetary value that her mother brought for Waller? How does this perception of people as having a monetary value impact Sarny’s view of the world around her? What negative impacts might this outlook cause in a person’s self worth?
Essay Topic 3
Analyze the poetic elements seen in “Words.” Develop a chart that indicates examples in this chapter of repetition, assonance, alliteration, rhyme, meter, symbolism, metaphor, etc. Why do you think that this chapter differs from the others in its narrative style? What does this change indicate?
|
This section contains 1,030 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
