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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 1, The Seer and the Seen, Section 5.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Ellison start writing?
(a) His mother asks him to write the story of her life.
(b) Richard Wright asks him to review a novel for Wright's magazine.
(c) Ellison fails to get into the jazz band he wants so he writes about it.
(d) Ellison is commissioned by the New York City Opera to write a libretto.

2. What musician does Ellison see as the true "trickster" archetype?
(a) Mahalia Jackson.
(b) Charlie Parker.
(c) Louis Armstrong.
(d) Jack Benny.

3. Where is the essay "Richard Wright's Blues" published and when?
(a) The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Summer 1935.
(b) The Antioch Review, Summer 1945.
(c) The Oklahoman Messenger, Winter 1919.
(d) The New York Times, Fall 1955.

4. For Ellison a primary difference between Twain and Hemingway is what?
(a) Twain was trained in writing and Hemingway was not.
(b) Twain was an abolitionist and Hemingway was a prohibitionists.
(c) Hemingway writes about his own personal myth and Twain writes about the national myth.
(d) Twain was creative and Hemingway factual.

5. Who is Stephen Crane?
(a) A 20th century novelist and author of "Here today, gone tomorrow."
(b) Ellison's first English professor who wrote "Black like me."
(c) A English gentleman who has fast holdings of land, slaves and wealth.
(d) A novelist born just after the Civil War.

Short Answer Questions

1. Ellison says Hemingway sought technical perfection rather than what?

2. What is minstrel show black face?

3. How does Ellison describe Wright's autobiography "Black Boy?"

4. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Ernest Hemingway?

5. Why does Ellison consider Stephen Crane a great artist?

(see the answer key)

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