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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 9 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How old is Sonny when his father dies?

2. How many years older than Sonny is the narrator?

3. What color of dress does the narrator associate with his mother?

4. Which of the following does the narrator use as a term for drugs?

5. In which of the following had the narrator’s uncle worked?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why had the narrator not known he had an uncle?

2. What does the narrator note would happen on Sunday evenings with his parents when someone turned on a light?

3. For what is Sonny arrested?

4. What outcome does Sonny’s old acquaintance foresee for him?

5. Why does the narrator note being glad of Isabel’s presence when he brings Sonny home?

6. Why does the narrator note having taken up residence where he did?

7. What are the narrator’s earliest memories of Sonny?

8. Why does the narrator note that Sonny and his father had not gotten along?

9. Why does the narrator posit his students are full of rage?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What character is the protagonist of “Sonny’s Blues”? How does the short story support such an assertion?

Essay Topic 2

In the short story, some characters are given no name, some are given but one name, and still others are referenced by title. What significance, if any, accrues to patterns of naming in the novel? If no significance accrues, what purpose might be served by the patterns of naming in the novel? How does “Sonny’s Blues” bear as much out?

Essay Topic 3

How reliable is the narrator of the short story? What in the text indicates that reliability, and how does it do so?

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