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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 speaker tired of in "One-Way Ticket"?

2. What does the speaker claim is such a bore in "Ennui"?

3. How much does the character's buddy earn a week in "Buddy"?

4. What is the one thing the fortune teller in "Ballad of the Fortune Teller" couldn't see?

5. What would the speaker in "Young Gal's Blues" rather be dead than?

Short Essay Questions

1. How are men portrayed in the poems in "Lament Over Love"?

2. What are three sub-themes that appear in "Note on Commercial Theater"?

3. What is the common tone of the pieces in "Life Is Fine"?

4. Why do some of the women in the "Lament Over Love" section claim to still participate in bad relationships with men?

5. What problem does the U.S. Census worker have with Madam in "Madam and the Census Man"?

6. Which famous line of Langston Hughes is in "Harlem"?

7. What is the reader left to assume about how Madam makes money in the poems about her?

8. Why does the speaker in "Third Degree" confess to police?

9. How does Madam prefer to handle her suitors?

10. How does the speaker compare his relationship with the South and the North in "The South"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What message is Hughes trying to convey to the reader in "Genius Child" and what impact is Hughes creating (with the reader) to accompany his intended message? Additionally, list at least 2 literary devices Hughes uses in this poem to convey his meaning.

Essay Topic 2

"Ennui" is an incredibly short but very powerful poem. Analyze Hughes's choice in diction for the poem and why he chose the words he did in a poem of such brevity. (Make sure to also address the title as one of Hughes's word choices.)

Essay Topic 3

In "Widow Woman," Hughes writes from the perspective of a woman. Discuss at least 3 rhetorical devices he uses to come up with a voice that is his own and yet not his own in this particular poem.

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