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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does the phrase "beating that boy" mean?
(a) A quick victory in chess.
(b) The insidious method of beating the life out of a Negro man by calling him "boy".
(c) The actions of white policemen upon finding Negros in the wrong part of town.
(d) Polite conversation between white and Negro persons about the "Negro problem".

2. What is the name of the college Ellison attended?
(a) Rutgers.
(b) Tuskegee.
(c) University of Oklahoma.
(d) Harvard.

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

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

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

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

7. How does Ellison describe the writer Malraux?
(a) Greatest nemesis.
(b) French counterpart.
(c) Literary ancestor.
(d) Polar opposite.

8. Who is Mrs. L.C. McFarland?
(a) Author of "Bound for Glory Someday".
(b) History teacher in Ellison's grade school.
(c) Woman who would become Ellison's second wife.
(d) Literary critic for the New York Post.

9. Why does Oklahoma hold some freedom and equality for Negroes at the time Ellison lived there?
(a) It has no tradition of slavery.
(b) There are almost no Negroes in Oklahoma.
(c) It is fully integrated and equality was legislated.
(d) Oklahoma is founded on Mormon principles which forbade prejudice.

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

11. How does Ellison describe his relationship with Howe?
(a) Alienation and scorn.
(b) Antagonistic cooperation.
(c) Bitterly opposed enemies.
(d) Comrades in arms.

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

13. What does Ellison say the "Negro problem" actually is?
(a) Non-existent.
(b) A white problem.
(c) An illusion where there is only chaos.
(d) A guilt problem charged with pain.

14. That Ellison's first novel might win a prestigious award makes him think what?
(a) He is chosen only because he is Negro.
(b) There is a crisis in the American novel.
(c) The committee has made a huge mistake.
(d) He is a brilliant writer.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is dangerous and different about Wright's attitude?

2. Who is Stanley Hyman's favorite archetypal figure?

3. What does Ellison praise about "Primer for White Folks?"

4. What type of jug does Ellison say Howe imagines Negro people to be in?

5. Hemingway carries on Twain's technical discoveries in writing but loses what?

(see the answer keys)

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