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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 James Reese Europe known for?

2. What does the hero of "Invisible Man" do that is a common theme in Negro folklore?

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

4. What magazine does Ellison write music reviews for?

5. What year are the African slaves introduced into the American Colonies?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who is LeRoi Jones?

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

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

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

5. What is the film "Intruder in the Dust" about?

6. Why does Ellison disagree with Jones when he says "A slave cannot be a man"?

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

8. Who is Mahalia Jackson?

9. Who is Teddy Hill?

10. What does Ellison believe is the primary American theme in both life and literature?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"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 2

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 3

Who is Stephen Crane and why is Ellison so interested in him? What is it about Crane's style of writing that is important to Ellison's thinking about good writing? What does Crane do that makes him unique? Clearly Ellison holds Crane up as a great model for all novelists who follow. Is it Crane's technique, his ability to write in such specific ways, what impresses Ellison or is it Crane's willingness to look into the heart of the American culture and see what is there?

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