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

2. What does Ellison believe writing is?
(a) Channeling of higher beings.
(b) Ethical instrument.
(c) A way to criticize others.
(d) Mindless activity.

3. As a child what do Ellison and his boyhood friends believe they are to do?
(a) Negros had no chance of doing anything interesting in life.
(b) They were doomed to hard manual labor and suffering.
(c) Negros could never equal the lives of white Americans.
(d) Be whoever they would and could be.

4. What is minstrel show black face?
(a) Dark themed short skits and plays in vaudeville.
(b) Black actors acting in minstrel shows that are comic and touching.
(c) Southern music and dance.
(d) White performers painting their faces black and acting in a pseudo-Negro nonsensical way.

5. Violence is inflicted upon Wright by family, friends, and society as a whole. What is his response?
(a) Passivity.
(b) Seclusion.
(c) Retreat.
(d) Violence.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ellison say the greatest difficulty for the Negro writer is?

2. What does Ralph Ellison's father hope that Ralph will grow up to be?

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

4. What does Wright do at age four?

5. According to Ellison what does the term "the grays" mean?

(see the answer key)

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