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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 1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What assumption does Ellison start with when writing about Negro persons?
(a) They are his responsibility to explain.
(b) His task as a writer is to save them from the white world.
(c) Men with black skins are unquestionably human.
(d) Only he, as a Negro writer, can find truth and beauty in their lives.

2. What does Mark Twain do with the character of Jim that breaks through the black face minstrel tradition?
(a) Jim's very serious and not at all fun.
(b) Jim performs black face without the paint.
(c) Jim is stereotypical and boring.
(d) He's a complex, dignified and very human person.

3. Why does Ellison begin the speech by referring to Ernest Hemingway?
(a) Hemingway is a writer Ellison strongly identifies with.
(b) Hemingway is often misspelled and therefore hidden.
(c) Hemingway once called Ellison by the wrong name, Emerson.
(d) The name Hemingway is a pseudonym.

4. What two types of music is Ellison torn between as a child?
(a) Sacred and Profane.
(b) Negro folk and Western classical.
(c) Country Western and Soul.
(d) Be-bop and Big Band.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Crane die of and where?

2. As a child what do Ellison and his boyhood friends believe they are to do?

3. What Hotel is Minton's part of?

4. Who is Stephen Crane?

5. Does Ellison have "Invisible Man" completely thought out prior to writing it?

(see the answer key)

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