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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. Blood is still very new at the pimping game and has to constantly remind himself of what?

2. After beating Runt with a wire, how does Blood respond to his own reaction?

3. After the beating with the wire, Runt leaves and still has not returned by what time?

4. While Blood is sitting in his parked car outside the Roost, Pretty Preston jumps in and tells Blood what he plans to do to Sweet Jones for revenge. What is it?

5. What reality of racial prejudice in the legal system is Blood faced with after his encounter with Melody?

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. What are two ways in which the Melody incident is haunting for Blood in Chapter 7?

3. 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?

4. In Chapter 4, what might be described as the final exam for graduation to full pimp status for Blood?

5. In spite of having worked as a pimp for less than a full day in Chicago, Blood nevertheless provides Runt with a full set of "rules for whoring" in the neighborhood. Why does he do this and where would he have gotten these rules?

6. 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.")

7. In what two ways does Pepper influence Blood?

8. How does the Chapter 9 title "Butterfly" refer to Chris?

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

10. How does Blood's experience with Pepper instill in him a desire for money?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Prostitution is described as an almost wholly negative experience in the book "Pimp: The Story of My Life." Certainly those that worked for Slim didn't enjoy life all that often. However, there are many prostitutes (and non-prostitutes) who defend their line of work and demand decriminalization of the sex-trade (particularly to give them the legal status to avoid falling victim to their own pimps). Research the various arguments for and against legalizing prostitution and develop your own arguments for or against it.

Essay Topic 2

Nature versus Nurture. Bobby Beck's choices as Macking Youngblood and Iceberg Slim can be described as a result of an unfortunate and violent childhood, bad environment and bad parenting/role modeling. Instead of following the example of Henry Upshaw, a man he loved and wanted to be like, Beck chose to follow the example of Steve and the pimps of the Chicago underworld. Is Beck's path in life inevitable given his resentment of women, his violent handling by his father and his available options as a black man in a white, segregated world? Identify key choice points for Beck at various points in his life and his perceived alternatives.

Essay Topic 3

Oscar, the inmate Bobby meets in State Reformatory School, is institutionalized after spending too much time in solitary confinement. After Slim (or Bobby, as he was then) witnesses Oscar's decline into madness and suicide, he internalizes this lesson and remembers it during his own stretch in solitary later on. It is integral to his desire to comply with the warden's demands to know the details of his escape. Solitary confinement is still utilized in certain circumstances in the American prison system (and many other prison systems around the world). The UN categorizes some uses of solitary confinement as torture or inhumane treatment. Why are humans so heavily impacted psychologically by solitary confinement? How can the experience of solitary confinement change depending upon the personality of the person incarcerated? In Slim's case, months in solitary confinement ultimately give the warden what he wants. Is solitary confinement an acceptable method for getting truth (or other desired behaviors) from someone? Is solitary confinement a necessary evil of the prison system or an inhumane exercise in cruelty against people who have no way of defending themselves?

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