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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 6.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the origin of the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke?"
(a) Short story about lynching.
(b) Treatise on the folk art of tying knots.
(c) Letter written by Ellison when he was living in Rome to an old friend.
(d) "Invisible Man."

2. What does the phrase "beating that boy" mean?
(a) The actions of white policemen upon finding Negros in the wrong part of town.
(b) The insidious method of beating the life out of a Negro man by calling him "boy".
(c) A quick victory in chess.
(d) Polite conversation between white and Negro persons about the "Negro problem".

3. Where does Ellison say civil wars are fought?
(a) "Between and betwixt fantasy and reality."
(b) "Within the individual human heart."
(c) "In no man's land which cannot be grasped."
(d) "On the field of family ties."

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

5. Who is Stanley Edgar Hyman?
(a) Ellison's uncle who has a good sense of humor.
(b) A lyricist and comedian in the 1930's.
(c) The prominent Negro intellectual who wrote "Santa Claus is Black."
(d) A scholar who wrote on the relationship between Negro literature and folklore.

Short Answer Questions

1. For Ellison who is the greatest artist the south has ever produced?

2. Where is the essay "Stephen Crane and the Mainstream of American Fiction" published?

3. What is minstrel show black face?

4. How does Ellison start writing?

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

(see the answer key)

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