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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. Which of the following does the narrator note having thrown from rooftops?

2. What instrument does the narrator associate with Sunday afternoons with his parents?

3. Of which borough does the narrator think while talking with Sonny’s childhood acquaintance?

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

5. How old is the narrator when his father dies?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

6. For what is Sonny arrested?

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

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

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

A lack of formal sectional division in the short story obliges a fairly arbitrary breakdown of the text for purposes of study and discussion. How might the short story be sectioned off other than it currently is? Why might those divisions be appropriate, based on the text and its contexts of composition and reception?

Essay Topic 2

Conversely, given demonstrated efforts toward censorship in a number of countries, what would likely prompt bans of “Sonny’s Blues”? By which groups? Why?

Essay Topic 3

Overall, what is the most important theme of “Sonny’s Blues”? What in the text indicates as much? How does it do so?

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