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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

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

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

4. What does Crane die of and where?
(a) Murder, on board a ship crossing the Atlantic.
(b) Tuberculosis, in the far Black Forest of Germany.
(c) The black plague of 1834, in London, England.
(d) In a fierce battle on the plains of Alsace.

5. Who names Ellison?
(a) His parish priest.
(b) The midwife that delivered him.
(c) A passing stranger.
(d) His father.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who is the editor of "The Primer for White Folks?"

2. Who is Stanley Edgar Hyman?

3. How does Ellison start writing?

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

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the Negro say when white America holds up twentieth century fiction and say "this is the American reality?"

2. What writers are at issue in the exchange between Irving Howe and Ralph Ellison?

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

4. What does the phrase "beating that boy" refer to?

5. What does the second half of the title "Hidden Names and Complex Fate" refer to?

6. What does Ellison compare Wright's personal journey of blooming to?

7. What is different about Oklahoma and the relationship of different races when compared to the South or even to Texas?

8. How did a library for Negro persons emerge in Oklahoma City?

9. Why does Ellison choose to write about Faulkner?

10. What does the phrase "The World and the Jug" refers to?

(see the answer keys)

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