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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. When is "The Birth of a Nation" released?

2. What is Ellison's reaction to the term "Negro culture?"

3. Who are the two main characters in "Intruder in the Dust?"

4. What song moves Jackson into the public eye?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Where is "Minton's Playhouse" located?

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

3. What captures the attention of many critics about "Blues People."

4. Who is Teddy Hill?

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

6. What experience in Ellison's childhood gives him patience with his upstairs singing neighbor?

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

8. Who is LeRoi Jones?

9. What does the mural above the bandstand at Minton's depict?

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

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

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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