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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 3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What book does Hemingway believe all modern American fiction sprang from?
(a) The Red Badge of Courage.
(b) Huckleberry Finn.
(c) The Bible.
(d) Moby Dick.

2. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Mark Twain?
(a) Twain was married to a Negro woman.
(b) Twain was a slave owner and trader.
(c) Twain was a humorist.
(d) Twain offers a unique historical perspective.

3. How does Ellison describe his boyhood experience in Oklahoma?
(a) Very controlled and regimented experience.
(b) Romantic aspirations in the spirit of frontier adventurousness.
(c) Poverty stricken existence with little enjoyment.
(d) Series of mind numbing and violent episodes.

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

5. What does Falkner understand about racial social code of the South?
(a) It will never change.
(b) Here today, gone tomorrow.
(c) It is fragile and illusionary.
(d) Destructive to both Negro and white parts of society.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What does Huckleberry Finn recognize about the Negro character, Jim?

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

4. What is the origin of the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke?"

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

(see the answer key)

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