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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 is the total time lapse of Chapter 6?

2. What is the time span of Chapter 7?

3. How does Blood know the things he knows about Sweet Jones (like his essential motivation)?

4. Before sending Runt out for her first night of work for him, what does Blood tell her?

5. Why does Pretty Preston's attempt at revenge on Sweet Jones fail?

Short Essay Questions

1. Besides giving him his first street name, how does Weeping Shorty influence Blood's career as a pimp?

2. What is the essence of the "cop and blow" scheme in Chapter 10?

3. How does the incident with Melody provide a metaphor for Blood's relationship with and attitude towards the white world?

4. Steve is never given a last name. What might be some reasons for this in the author's mind?

5. How does Party Time protect Bobby in Chapter 2, and why?

6. Diamond Tooth Jimmy and Party Time (Chapter 2), Weeping Shorty (Chapter 3), Poison, Sweet Jones, Glass Top and Pretty Preston are all street names for pimps and other characters of the underworld that Blood inhabits. What are some other professions that prefer or require nicknames for their operatives and why?

7. Blood gets up on his second day in Chicago and immediately gets high before going out for the night in Chapter 7. How does this sequence of events foreshadow a potential for backfire in Blood's plan to befriend Glass Top to get to Sweet Jones?

8. Another good name for Chapter 2 might be "Down a Dark Alley." What are three ways in which this name would be appropriate?

9. Bobby accepts the invitation to attend Tuskegee University initially and only leaves when kicked out for bad behavior. How is Bobby's decision to attend college indicative of his frame of mind at this age?

10. Why do Blood and Sweet Jones never discuss their differing opinions on white society?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The following statement appears at the very beginning of the book "Pimp: The Story of My Life": "This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are use fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental." How does this statement affect the value of the story in your estimation?

Essay Topic 2

In the World War II years, Sweet Jones makes the prediction that pimping will become tougher because women will now have more ways to make money legitimately. This is an entirely personal viewpoint, somewhat jaded by the nature of his business but, in fact, Sweet is right. How does the work environment change for women in World War II? What effect does this have on prostitution?

Essay Topic 3

In Beck's early years, doctors, lawyers, bankers were the only high class "Negro" society he was exposed to that looked as well or lived as well as he and his family (with Henry Upshaw). Yet apparently this did not make enough of an impression upon him to lead him to highly value education and he is thrown out of Tuskegee University for bad behavior. In the late 1920's what were the educational and professional opportunities generally available to black men, and how did this affect Beck?

(see the answer keys)

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