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

2. Who is Stanley Edgar Hyman?

3. Ellison says Hemingway sought technical perfection rather than what?

4. Who is Richard Wright to Ellison?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Ellison's basic quarrel with Hyman?

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

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

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

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

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

7. What does Ellison find so remarkable about Crane?

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Race relations in America have long been a central focus of our culture. In the introduction Ellison prepares the reader to enter this discussion with him. What kind of invitation does he present? What is the emotional tone and feeling of the introduction? What does Ellison reveal about his own perspective on race? Why is it one of the themes of this book of his writing?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

In "Hidden Name and Complex Fate" Ellison reveals that it was his father, who died when Ellison was three years old, who chose for him the name of a famous white poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and in doing so cast upon him a complex fate. What was that fate and how did it slowly reveal itself through Ellison's life? Why was it such a struggle to come to peace with? Why was it such a blessing and a curse?

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