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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 4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is unique about "The Way It Is" compared to the other essays?
(a) Focuses on Negro persons.
(b) Recommends communism.
(c) Has no humor.
(d) Written as a narrative story.

2. In "Blues People" how are the blues categorized?
(a) Poetic or Sociological.
(b) Good or bad.
(c) Negro or White.
(d) Country or classic.

3. What does Ellison say slaves had in place of freedom?
(a) Dementia, mental illness, emptiness.
(b) Blues, spirituals, jazz.
(c) Suffering, despair, darkness.
(d) Early death, disease, drunkenness.

4. What work of literature seizes Ellison's young mind early on?
(a) The Bible.
(b) The Waste Land.
(c) Black like me.
(d) The American Constitution.

5. What is the occasion of Ellison's speech "Brave Words on a Startling Occasion?"
(a) Acceptance of the American National Book Award in 1953.
(b) Induction into the American Negro Writer's Hall of Fame.
(c) Address to the Harvard University graduating class of 1950.
(d) Eldest son's wedding.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where is the Lafargue Psychiatric Clinic?

2. Who is Ellison named after?

3. What is minstrel show black face?

4. What does Ralph Ellison's father hope that Ralph will grow up to be?

5. Why does Ellison consider Stephen Crane a great artist?

(see the answer key)

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