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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. After Pretty Preston's revenge attempt on Sweet Jones fails, what does Blood decide he wants from Sweet Jones?

2. How are Runt and Blood traveling in the beginning of Chapter 5?

3. What does Blood go back to his car to do after his first encounter with Sweet Jones?

4. Who is Pretty Preston?

5. After Pepper gets Blood sent to jail on false charges, Blood takes advantage of a different kind of education. What does Blood learn in jail?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the IQ test Blood receives from his parole officer change his life in Chapter 3?

2. How does it speak to Blood's salesmanship that he is able to score Runt as his own working girl after such a short period of time?

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

4. 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?

5. Describe the con that Party Time and Bobby work on white men.

6. How is Pretty Preston used as a foil for Sweet Jones?

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

8. What is one of Slim's secrets to success for pimping in Chicago?

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. 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.")

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

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

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?

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