1. Thinking about the content and purpose of Chapter 5 in the story, what does the title "The Jungle Fauna" mean? What or where is the Jungle? What or who is the fauna? (When thinking about the Jungle, remember the title of Chapter 2, "First Steps into the Jungle.")

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

3. How does Blood show his courage and psychological insight in his dealings with Sweet Jones in Chapter 6?

4. At the end of Chapter 4, Runt and Blood leave Milwaukee and go to Chicago to begin their new lives as pimp and prostitute together. Before he leaves though, Blood goes by Mama's house to tell her where he's going. How does this reflect his ambivalence towards his mother?

5. Who are the first pimps and prostitutes in young Bobby's life and how is his encounter with them a generally positive experience?

6. 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?

7. Did Blood's "pep talk" (beating) at the end of Chapter 6 have an effect on Runt in Chapter 7?

8. At the end of Chapter 5, when Blood beats Runt for the first time, he begins to have flashbacks to his childhood and Mama. What insight do these flashbacks provide to Blood's life and personality?

9. Many characters come and go in the story without being given names, even if they play a reasonably memorable role for the author (like the banker with the big tip in Chapter 1). However, in Chapter 9, Silas plays a singularly minor role and yet is given a name and place in the story. What significance could be attributed to this?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In spite of the fact that Slim owns a gun, a reasonably normal accessory for a pimp, he never kills anyone (though he does shoot Serena and attempts to shoot Steve) and very few of his associates are murdered or die by violence. Sweet Jones shoots and kills an unnamed man, though he escapes jail. Slim is shot at in the Roost but is not hurt. Henry Upshaw, Glass Top, Pretty Preston and Mama all die of various (though not necessarily unavoidable) natural causes. None of Slim's prostitutes ever is reported to die (even though Slim himself attempts to kill Runt). Slim's world is filled with anger, violence, danger, beatings, drugs, sex, prison stints and yet Slim's story is almost unaffected by traumatic deaths. Does this seem likely? Is this relative "purity" a fictional polish the author has put in the story? What other reasons might there be for this?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and comment on the irony in the fact that when Slim is released from Leavenworth, he has lost everything and everyone in his life except Mama, the person who, in his mind, drove him into the life he now leads.

(see the answer keys)

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