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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 3, The Shadow and the Act, Section 2.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What childhood memory does Ellison draw on to deal with his artistic nemesis?
(a) Being forced to kneel and pray at church.
(b) Learning to play the trumpet.
(c) Falling off a large statue.
(d) His father's death.

2. Where is the essay "Stephen Crane and the Mainstream of American Fiction" published?
(a) In the Harvard Review of Literature, 1950.
(b) In the Atlantic Monthly.
(c) It was never published.
(d) As an introduction to "The Red Badge of Courage" 1960 printing.

3. Why does Oklahoma hold some freedom and equality for Negroes at the time Ellison lived there?
(a) It has no tradition of slavery.
(b) Oklahoma is founded on Mormon principles which forbade prejudice.
(c) There are almost no Negroes in Oklahoma.
(d) It is fully integrated and equality was legislated.

4. How old is Stephen Crane when he dies?
(a) 102.
(b) 92.
(c) 50.
(d) 29.

5. What assumption does Ellison start with when writing about Negro persons?
(a) His task as a writer is to save them from the white world.
(b) Only he, as a Negro writer, can find truth and beauty in their lives.
(c) They are his responsibility to explain.
(d) Men with black skins are unquestionably human.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the "Shadow" which Hollywood produces?

3. Who is Charlie Christian?

4. What Bible myth is referred to in "The World and the Jug?"

5. What instrument does Henry Minton play?

(see the answer key)

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