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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Ellison believe is the true "Negro experience?"

2. What does Ellison suggest as a subtitle for "Primer for White Folks?"

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

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

5. As a child what is Wright unable to distinguish between?

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. Who was it that suggested to Ellison that he review a book and write a short story?

3. What does Ellison critique about the authors included in the Primer?

4. What is the "hidden name" Ellison is referring in the title of his speech to the Library of Congress in 1064?

5. Where do Ellison and Hyman divide in their understanding of black face minstrel performance?

6. As a child Ellison imagined himself as a "Renaissance man." What does that mean?

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The final essay in the book was never published. It is a book review of the Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal who was brought in by the Carnegie Foundation to study the "Negro problem." What is Ellison's primary reaction to the book? What is positive in Myrdal's assessment? What does Ellison object to? Why do you think the review was never published?

Essay Topic 2

In the essay about Twentieth Century Fiction Ellison is sharply critical of Hemingway. What is it that Hemingway lacks which disappoints Ellison so much? Is his criticism solely of Hemingway or is Ellison critiquing a generation of writers? What changes in the twenty century after World War I? Why does the Negro character disappear? What is Ellison's final conclusion in reference to Hemingway and his technical brilliance?

Essay Topic 3

Why does Ellison choose "The Shadow and the Act" as the title of the entire book? What is the theme which this film review contains that Ellison finds suitable to place the entire set of writings within? What framework does this title provide for the other essays, articles, speeches, interviews and stories?

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