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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. Who painted the mural that is displayed above Minton's bandstand?

2. What is Jimmy Rushing's instrument?

3. What is the original title of the film "The Birth of a Nation?"

4. Is Ellison interested primarily in injustice or art?

5. What do the blues capture?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ellison believe Jackson's greatest gift is?

2. What was Jackson's early life like?

3. Who does the song "They picked poor robin clean" remind Ellison of?

4. Who is Mahalia Jackson?

5. What type of food is served at Minton's?

6. What type of music does the upstairs singer practice all day?

7. What are the two categories Jones places the blues in?

8. Who is Teddy Hill?

9. What does Ellison understand the term "Negro culture" to mean?

10. What does Ellison tell us about the matriarch, Mrs. Jackson, in "The Way It Is."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Overall Ellison praises LeRoi Jones book "Blues People." However, there are elements of Jones' analysis of the blues which are not up to Ellison's high standards. What are the major criticisms he makes of Jones? How does he support his argument against the conclusions Jones comes to?

Essay Topic 2

"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?

Essay Topic 3

In "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" Ellison challenges Stanley Hyman's assertion the "smart man playing dumb" role is primarily Negro. What does Ellison propose is the true case? What examples does he use to argue that this "joke" is much broader than Negro culture? How does this understanding fit with the larger theme in Ellison's work of the relationship between Negro culture and American culture?

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