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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 2, Sound and the Mainstream, Section 3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What musician does Ellison see as the true "trickster" archetype?
(a) Louis Armstrong.
(b) Jack Benny.
(c) Mahalia Jackson.
(d) Charlie Parker.

2. What does Huckleberry Finn recognize about the Negro character, Jim?
(a) Jim is very ill and near death.
(b) Jim knows the landscape and can take Huck anywhere.
(c) Jim is not only a slave, but a human being.
(d) Jim can make him lots of money if Huck will return him to his owner.

3. What does Ellison say the greatest difficulty for the Negro writer is?
(a) Capture the Negro speech idiom and put it down on paper.
(b) Find a subject worthy of his time and effort.
(c) Get someone to publish him because most of the publishers were white.
(d) Reveal what he truly feels rather than serving up what Negroes are supposed to feel.

4. What is Charlie Parker's nickname?
(a) Noodle.
(b) Bird.
(c) C.P.
(d) Horn.

5. How does Ellison start writing?
(a) His mother asks him to write the story of her life.
(b) Ellison is commissioned by the New York City Opera to write a libretto.
(c) Richard Wright asks him to review a novel for Wright's magazine.
(d) Ellison fails to get into the jazz band he wants so he writes about it.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the phrase "beating that boy" mean?

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

3. What is minstrel show black face?

4. What is the "Hidden Name" referred to in the title of Ellison's speech?

5. What does Ellison believe writing is?

(see the answer key)

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