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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. In the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" what does Ellison say black face allows white America to do?
(a) Pour out its hatred and fear in a theatrical form.
(b) Laugh and forget about its troubles and woes.
(c) See the Negro story from a different perspective.
(d) Avoid looking at the shallowness of white American culture.

2. How old is Crane when he wrote his masterpiece "The Red Badge of Courage?"
(a) 21.
(b) 45.
(c) 79.
(d) 16,

3. What does Huckleberry Finn recognize about the Negro character, Jim?
(a) Jim knows the landscape and can take Huck anywhere.
(b) Jim is very ill and near death.
(c) Jim can make him lots of money if Huck will return him to his owner.
(d) Jim is not only a slave, but a human being.

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

5. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Ernest Hemingway?
(a) Hemingway grew up in Oklahoma City also.
(b) Hemingway sold more books than any other American author.
(c) Hemingway ignored the dramatic and symbolic possibilities a Negro character would present.
(d) Hemingway was not American.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Mark Twain?

2. What are the three themes of "Shadow and Act" according to the Introduction?

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

4. What is the relationship between Ellison and Stanley Hyman?

5. Where and when is the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" published?

(see the answer key)

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