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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 8.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Ellison describe the writer Malraux?
(a) French counterpart.
(b) Literary ancestor.
(c) Polar opposite.
(d) Greatest nemesis.

2. Violence is inflicted upon Wright by family, friends, and society as a whole. What is his response?
(a) Seclusion.
(b) Retreat.
(c) Violence.
(d) Passivity.

3. What is the Negro child taught to see the white man as?
(a) A being from another planet.
(b) Something to be ignored.
(c) Omniscient, omnipotent and as relentless as a Mississippi flood.
(d) Wise and loyal.

4. 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 self-involved.
(d) Those who believe Wright is exaggerating the truth.

5. What distresses Ellison most about the essay "Black Boys and Native Sons?"
(a) Assumes an absolute separation of the races.
(b) Uses the word "Boy" in its title.
(c) Criticizes his own writing.
(d) Written only for a white audience.

Short Answer Questions

1. What musician does Ellison see as the true "trickster" archetype?

2. What folk tradition does Ellison believe the black face figure grows out of?

3. What does Crane die of and where?

4. In the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" what does Ellison say black face allows white America to do?

5. Who is Ellison named after?

(see the answer key)

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