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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 falls on Ellison and his wife while they sleep?
(a) Box of books.
(b) Tape machine.
(c) Drum set.
(d) Ceiling.

2. How does Ellison describe Wright's autobiography "Black Boy?"
(a) An angry young man's immoderate tale of delusion.
(b) Another failed attempt to pierce the great wall between races.
(c) A non-white intellectual's statement of his relationship with Western culture.
(d) The Negro answer to "Huckleberry Finn."

3. What establishment is to the right of Ellison?
(a) Dog training school with night classes.
(b) Restaurant with an enormous jute box.
(c) Police Academy with indoor shooting range.
(d) Brothel with large dance hall.

4. What are the three themes of "Shadow and Act" according to the Introduction?
(a) Classical Dance, Country Music and Folk Art.
(b) Racism, Poverty and Obstruction of Justice.
(c) White people, Black people, and Native Americans.
(d) Literature, Jazz/Blues and the relationship between Negro America and American culture.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Ernest Hemingway?

2. Why does Oklahoma hold some freedom and equality for Negroes at the time Ellison lived there?

3. What Greek myth does Ellison refer to in "Brave Words?"

4. What distresses Ellison most about the essay "Black Boys and Native Sons?"

5. What does Jones advise his audience to do?

(see the answer key)

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