View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

3. What is the origin of the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke?"
(a) "Invisible Man."
(b) Treatise on the folk art of tying knots.
(c) Letter written by Ellison when he was living in Rome to an old friend.
(d) Short story about lynching.

4. 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) His mother, a single parent, is a custodian in an apartment building there.
(c) Ellison's father made a great deal of money in the railroad business.
(d) Ellison's family has always been well to do and had nice houses.

5. Who is Stephen Crane?
(a) A 20th century novelist and author of "Here today, gone tomorrow."
(b) Ellison's first English professor who wrote "Black like me."
(c) A novelist born just after the Civil War.
(d) A English gentleman who has fast holdings of land, slaves and wealth.

Short Answer Questions

1. For Ellison a primary difference between Twain and Hemingway is what?

2. Why does Ellison choose to analyze William Falkner?

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

4. What are the three major section of the "Primer for White Folks?"

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Ellison's writing process for "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke?"

2. Why does Ellison say that the least form of segregation is the word?

3. Why does Ellison consider Stephen Crane to be such a great artist?

4. Why was the young Ellison drawn to reading?

5. What, for Ellison, is the great shaping event of twentieth-century fiction?

6. Ellison originally wanted to be a musician. What changed for him?

7. Though "Black Boy" presents a brutal and violent world, what else does it manage to convey about the young Wright?

8. What were some of the catastrophic events which occurred in Wright's life?

9. What does Ellison admire most about "The Primer for White Folks?"

10. What is the difference between the way Hyman and Ellison view "the darky" entertainer?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,065 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample