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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. Which critics of "Black Boy" does Ellison want to respond to?

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

3. What is it that widens Ellison's world in a dramatic way?

4. Where might Crane have gotten information about the Civil War?

5. Who is Stephen Crane?

Short Essay Questions

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

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 is Ellison's basic quarrel with Hyman?

5. How does Ellison leave the rather bitter dialogue with Howe?

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

In "Living with Music" Ellison literally finds himself overwhelmed by the group of people who live around him. His struggle to find his own peace within a larger and very noisy society is a metaphor for the way he sees the individual constantly struggling against the group in life. How does he find peace? What method does he use to carve out his space and literally "be heard?"

Essay Topic 3

In the film review "The Shadow and the Act" Ellison criticizes Hollywood's portrayal of Negro Americans as "Shadow," by which he means illusion. The act refers to reality, what truly is, which Hollywood shows little interest in revealing. Describe Ellison's theory and show how he uses the example of film to reveal what is for him an overall American habit of focusing on illusion rather than reality.

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