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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 2, Sound and the Mainstream, Section 4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ellison believe Negro folklore does?
(a) Makes white people comfortable.
(b) Tells lies about the past.
(c) Keeps Negros down.
(d) Reveals the most intimate part of American history.

2. Which critics of "Black Boy" does Ellison want to respond to?
(a) Those who see the book as a miracle and its author a mystery.
(b) Those who believe Wright is a communist.
(c) Those who believe Wright is exaggerating the truth.
(d) Those who believe Wright is self-involved.

3. Who interviews Ellison in "The Art of Fiction?"
(a) Alfred Chester & Vilma Howard.
(b) John Jacob & Nancy Kerry.
(c) Donald Gibson and Bob Edwards.
(d) Gertrude Whittall and T. S. Eliot.

4. What do the three sections of "Invisible Man" represent?
(a) Terror to understanding to acceptance.
(b) Purpose to passion to perception.
(c) Darkness to dawn to full sun at noon.
(d) Ancient to modern to future.

5. What does the phrase "to finger its jagged grain and to transcend it" refer to?
(a) To walk the razor's edge of reason.
(b) To climb great mountains.
(c) The power of the blues.
(d) The complexity of writing fiction.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is Richard Wright born?

2. What do the blues capture?

3. What is the Negro child taught to see the white man as?

4. When does Jones place the beginnings of the blues?

5. What specific folk art form does "Black Boy" reflect?

(see the answer key)

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