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

2. Why does Ellison chose not to emphasize the details of racial hardship in his life?

3. What is Ellison's original career direction?

4. Why does Ellison choose to write "Invisible Man" in a non-naturalistic way?

5. Which American writers is the piece "Black Boys and Native Sons" about?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. When Ellison accepts the American National Book Award for "The Invisible Man" what does he say that the award is recognizing?

6. What does Ellison find so remarkable about Crane?

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

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

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

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

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

The Lafargue Psychiatric Clinic is profiled with a sense of gratitude and anger. What is Ellison angry about and why? As much as he admires the clinic, why does he feel it should not be necessary? What is at the source of mental suffering for many persons in the Harlem community?

Essay Topic 3

"The World and the Jug" is an angry, often humorous response to the white, northern liberal writer Irving Howe's article about Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. What is Ellison's primary anger towards Howe based in? What pattern does he believe Howe has fallen into that is so similar to the discriminatory patterns against Negroes in America in general? What does Ellison argue that Howe is continuing when it comes to understanding the relationship between Negro and white culture?

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