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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" what does Ellison say black face allows white America to do?
(a) Laugh and forget about its troubles and woes.
(b) Avoid looking at the shallowness of white American culture.
(c) See the Negro story from a different perspective.
(d) Pour out its hatred and fear in a theatrical form.

2. What does Ellison say good fiction is made of?
(a) Tricks of the trade.
(b) Eternal truth.
(c) What is real.
(d) Fun.

3. Why does Ellison's family live in a middle class white neighborhood in Oklahoma City?
(a) There is no Negro neighborhood in Oklahoma City.
(b) Ellison's family has always been well to do and had nice houses.
(c) Ellison's father made a great deal of money in the railroad business.
(d) His mother, a single parent, is a custodian in an apartment building there.

4. What does Ellison believe is the true "Negro experience?"
(a) A codified, suffocating existence which cannot be understood by others.
(b) A life of unremitting suffering and pain.
(c) The opposite of the "white experience."
(d) There isn't one. Negro persons live diverse and varied lives.

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

6. What does Ellison believe writing is?
(a) A way to criticize others.
(b) Ethical instrument.
(c) Mindless activity.
(d) Channeling of higher beings.

7. Ellison says Hemingway sought technical perfection rather than what?
(a) Lyrical qualities.
(b) Moral insight.
(c) Fame and notoriety.
(d) Financial gain.

8. How does Ellison describe the philosopher Kierkegaard in the "Stephen Crane.." essay?
(a) The keeper of Sophocles flame.
(b) Philosopher king who wrecked the castle.
(c) Household god for many contemporary novelists.
(d) Pinnacle of the romantic poets of the 1950s.

9. What book does Hemingway believe all modern American fiction sprang from?
(a) Huckleberry Finn.
(b) The Bible.
(c) Moby Dick.
(d) The Red Badge of Courage.

10. Where is the essay "Stephen Crane and the Mainstream of American Fiction" published?
(a) As an introduction to "The Red Badge of Courage" 1960 printing.
(b) In the Atlantic Monthly.
(c) In the Harvard Review of Literature, 1950.
(d) It was never published.

11. According to Ellison what does the term "the grays" mean?
(a) American melting pot.
(b) Negro term for nightfall.
(c) Slang word for feeling bored.
(d) Negro term for white people.

12. Why does Ellison consider Stephen Crane a great artist?
(a) He was talented in so many artistic fields.
(b) He was the first great Negro author.
(c) Under pressure and panic he stuck to his guns.
(d) He wrote so many books.

13. What does Ralph Ellison's father hope that Ralph will grow up to be?
(a) College professor.
(b) Jazz musician.
(c) Police officer.
(d) Poet.

14. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Mark Twain?
(a) Twain was a humorist.
(b) Twain was married to a Negro woman.
(c) Twain was a slave owner and trader.
(d) Twain offers a unique historical perspective.

15. What are Crane's parents like?
(a) Fundamentalist Christians.
(b) Libertine alcoholics.
(c) Marxist sympathizers.
(d) French born intellectuals.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which critics of "Black Boy" does Ellison want to respond to?

2. Why does Ellison begin the speech by referring to Ernest Hemingway?

3. What distresses Ellison most about the essay "Black Boys and Native Sons?"

4. What does Crane die of and where?

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

(see the answer keys)

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