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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. How does Ellison describe Mahalia Jackson?

2. Why are slaves able to express themselves in art?

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

4. Where is Minton's located?

5. What do people eat at Minton's?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Where is the Lefargue Psychiatric Clinic located?

5. What place does "Living with Music" describe?

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

7. Who is Teddy Hill?

8. How does the early film "Birth of the Nation" portray Negro persons?

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

10. Who is Mahalia Jackson?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

"Richard Wright's Blues" explores the history of southern Negro culture. What was the atmosphere Wright grew up in? What would he have been afraid of? Where did the violence, especially the beating and punishment from Negro parents upon their children, come from? How did this environment affect the young Wright? If he had stayed in the south would he have bloomed into the writer and thinker that he did? What did Ellison think about the chances of that happening?

Essay Topic 3

Ellison poetically describes a lost and lovely world in "The Golden Age, Time Past." Minton's Playhouse is an amalgamation of home, community, the South, and the noisy excitement of New York City. What influence does Henry Minton have upon the jazz musicians he nurtures? What is the atmosphere like? How is creativity nourished?

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