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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 does Wright do at age four?
(a) Sets the house on fire.
(b) Begins to read.
(c) Plays the piano.
(d) Makes a speech at church.

2. According to Ellison what does the term "the grays" mean?
(a) Slang word for feeling bored.
(b) American melting pot.
(c) Negro term for nightfall.
(d) Negro term for white people.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Falkner writes exclusively of the southern experience yet Ellison believes him to be addressing what?

2. Where is the essay "Richard Wright's Blues" published and when?

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

4. Other white cultures have black face type entertainment, but what is different about American black face?

5. What three ways do Negroes in Wright's childhood survive?

(see the answer key)

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