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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. Hemingway carries on Twain's technical discoveries in writing but loses what?
(a) Twain's understanding that technique is to be used in the service of truth.
(b) Twain's focus on American subjects.
(c) Twain's political and social construct.
(d) Twain's humor and light approach to storytelling.

2. How does Ellison define the "understanding of art?"
(a) Depending upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity.
(b) Limited to a very few elite patrons.
(c) It is not to be understood, only felt.
(d) Created by the whims of the culture at the time.

3. What do the three sections of "Invisible Man" represent?
(a) Ancient to modern to future.
(b) Darkness to dawn to full sun at noon.
(c) Terror to understanding to acceptance.
(d) Purpose to passion to perception.

4. What does Ellison read in 1935 that moves and intrigues him?
(a) R. Wright's "Black Boy."
(b) Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
(c) T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land."
(d) Voltaire's "Moliere."

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What specific folk art form does "Black Boy" reflect?

2. What Bible myth is referred to in "The World and the Jug?"

3. How does Ellison describe Wright's autobiography "Black Boy?"

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

5. Why does Ellison chose not to emphasize the details of racial hardship in his life?

(see the answer key)

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