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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 2, Sound and the Mainstream, Section 1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Ellison describe the writer Malraux?
(a) Greatest nemesis.
(b) Literary ancestor.
(c) Polar opposite.
(d) French counterpart.

2. Why does Ellison begin the speech by referring to Ernest Hemingway?
(a) Hemingway is often misspelled and therefore hidden.
(b) Hemingway once called Ellison by the wrong name, Emerson.
(c) Hemingway is a writer Ellison strongly identifies with.
(d) The name Hemingway is a pseudonym.

3. What is the "Hidden Name" referred to in the title of Ellison's speech?
(a) Ellison's father's name, George Washington Ellison.
(b) The names given to Negro people by their slave owners.
(c) Ernest Hemingway.
(d) Ellison's middle name, Waldo.

4. Hemingway carries on Twain's technical discoveries in writing but loses what?
(a) Twain's humor and light approach to storytelling.
(b) Twain's political and social construct.
(c) Twain's focus on American subjects.
(d) Twain's understanding that technique is to be used in the service of truth.

5. What does the chaos of noise cause in Ellison?
(a) Peace and Joy.
(b) Mental Illness.
(c) Writer's block.
(d) Hearing loss.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Ellison choose to analyze William Falkner?

2. Where does Ellison give the public address "Hidden Name and Complex Fate?"

3. What does Ellison believe writing is?

4. That Ellison's first novel might win a prestigious award makes him think what?

5. What does Ellison do to find some peace and quiet?

(see the answer key)

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