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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 did Buntu allow Zwelinzima to do?

2. When Styles takes the second photograph for Zwelinzima, what happens him?

3. What is the name of Zwelinzima's wife in Part 2?

4. What does Styles shout out for Zwelinzima to imagine he's posing against while getting his picture taken?

5. How does Zwelinzima explain the series of happenings that apparently gave him only three days to leave his dwelling?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Buntu's mood change at the end of Part 3?

2. How does Styles transform Robert's attitude in Part 2?

3. What does Sizwe claim that the dead Robert is doing in light of the idea of Sizwe taking his identity/name?

4. What is the passbook a symbol of?

5. Without having seen the play, what would be a safe implication to make about the character of Robert, given that one of the first things he does is give his name and immediately afterward, his address?

6. Describe the way Buntu's mood abruptly changes at the end of Part 3, and what he decides to do as a result.

7. In Buntu's story about Jacob, what does the preacher say about death?

8. How does this section of the play give us more information about the circumstances under which black people lived under Apartheid?

9. How is Buntu's display in order to convince Sizwe to change identities particularly powerful?

10. What can be extrapolated from the fact that Sizwe writes to his wife about living in another woman's home, and that despite their working together, they were not able to succeed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explore the ways the playwright uses unseen characters such as Sizwe's wife, Noweto, and Zola to suggest aspects of the main characters' lives outside of the action on stage. In your answer, take note of the fact that there are no white characters mentioned in the play, only the general authority they hold over blacks in South Africa.

Essay Topic 2

How, in Part 1 of the play, does the playwright use metaphor to show the living situation of black workers in Apartheid-era South Africa? Make reference to the stories of a) Styles' job at the Ford plant and Henry Ford Jr's visit, and b) The 'Doom' insect spray and the cat.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how foreshadowing is used in the play, making particular reference to either:

A) Styles' monologue in Part 1.

OR

B) Buntu's actions in Parts 4 and 5.

(see the answer keys)

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