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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 message does the narrator posit Creole has for Sonny?

2. Who rails at Sonny about truancy?

3. On what day does Sonny invite the narrator to hear him play?

4. To what is Sonny’s experience compared?

5. What color notebook does Sonny carry?

Short Essay Questions

1. What effect does Grace’s death have on Isabel?

2. Why does the narrator posit that passers-by doubt the holiness of those conducting the sidewalk revival?

3. What does the narrator perceive Creole asserting “the blues were all about” (47)?

4. What effect does the narrator notice the sidewalk revival has on its attendees?

5. Why does the narrator express misgivings about Sonny going into music?

6. How does the narrator depict the common experience of hearing music?

7. How does Isabel realize that Sonny has left?

8. Why does Sonny make a point of smoking in front of the narrator after his mother’s death?

9. What revelation does Sonny report from listening to the sidewalk revival?

10. How does the narrator depict the performer’s experience of music?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Which character is the second most important in the text? How does the work support such an assertion?

Essay Topic 2

Explicate the significance of the name of any one character in the text.

Essay Topic 3

Assuming that “Sonny’s Blues” should be standard reading for a given class and level, what class and what level? Why that class and why that level? What in the text suggests as much, and how does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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