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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 Sarny remark about her birth in Chapter 1?
2. When Sarny overhears the mistress of the plantation in Chapter 2, the mistress is complaining that her husband spends too much money buying slaves. What is she concerned that she will not have enough money to purchase due to her husband's overspending?
3. How does Mammy notate the ages of the slave children that she raises?
4. How does Sarny describe the financial circumstances of the master's family in Chapter 2?
5. In what year did the United States Congress pass a Slave Trade Act which prohibited the building or outfitting of ships in the U.S. for use in the slave trade?
Short Essay Questions
1. How does Sarny describe the process of meals for the slaves at the plantation in Chapter 3?
2. How would you describe the narrator of the story? Is the narrator directly involved in the action of the narrative?
3. What work is Sarny doing on the plantation in the beginning of Chapter 2? How does she feel about this chore?
4. Why were slaves forbidden education historically? How is this depicted in the novel?
5. How is Sarny's birth and early childhood described in Chapter 1? Are Sarny's experiences common for slaves at this time?
6. What is the significance of John's scars when he first appears? Why do you think Waller chose John despite those scars?
7. When is the first time that Sarny describes hearing the word "free" in Chapter 2? What were her perceptions of this word?
8. 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?
9. What does Sarny overhear from the white house while she works in Chapter 2?
10. What imagery and/or symbolism is used in describing the slaves on the plantation in Chapter 2?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss the language style of Nightjohn. How would you describe the dialect of Sarny’s narrative? How does John’s dialect differ from Sarny’s? How is it similar? How does the language style of the novel help the reader to connect with its themes?
Essay Topic 2
How is slave life described in the novel? List at least five ways in which Waller ensures that his slaves are stripped of their freedom. Which seems most invasive to you? Why? What freedom(s) would you most miss if you lost your freedoms today?
Essay Topic 3
Discuss the “barter” made between John and Sarny when they first meet. How does bartering or trading relate to the theme of monetary value in the novel? What does Sarny trade with John in order to learn “letters”? What does John gain from the arrangement?
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This section contains 1,043 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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