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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 color notebook does Sonny carry?

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

3. To what does the narrator compare the outside world?

4. Which of the following songs is sung at the sidewalk revival?

5. What musician does Sonny disparage?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. How does Isabel realize that Sonny has left?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Baldwin’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

What is the overall attitude of the story towards musical performance? How does that attitude emerge from the text?

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