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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 Mammy tell Sarny to bring to her as she makes her way to the slave quarters in the end of Chapter 5?

2. What derogatory name does John refer to Master Waller as when Sarny tells him about Mammy in Chapter 5?

3. What does Mammy tell Sarny to fetch as John is taken to the slave quarters after his punishment in Chapter 5?

4. What does Waller order the field hands to do when he is finished punishing John in Chapter 5?

5. What is the first word that Sarny learns to write in Chapter 5?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Mammy respond when Sarny runs to her at the spring house in Chapter 5?

2. How does Waller discover that Sarny is learning to read and write in Chapter 5? How does he react?

3. What happens after Alice's whipping in Chapter 4? How are Alice's wounds treated?

4. What does John teach Sarny in Chapter 6? How does Mammy respond when she observes this exchange?

5. Sarny describes two slaves that she has heard of that ran away from Waller's plantation in Chapter 4. What story is related of Jim's attempted escape?

6. What instructions does Mammy give to Sarny while she's at the spring house in Chapter 5?

7. What leads up to Alice being being whipped by Waller in Chapter 4? How is her whipping described?

8. How does the relationship between Mammy and John change after John explains his past in Chapter 4?

9. How does Sarny describe the first day of John's recovery in Chapter 6?

10. What element of the novel's plot structure is seen in Chapter 5?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Discuss the rights, roles, and expectations of women in the 18th and 19th century American South. Examine the responsibilities and roles that a figure such as Margaret Waller would play in her household and plantation. How many “house-slaves” might a family like the Wallers have? What would have been the main contribution of the slave-master’s wife? How did these roles differ for slave women?

(see the answer keys)

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