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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 musician does Sonny disparage?

2. Which instrument is played at the sidewalk revival?

3. What instrument does Creole play?

4. What drink is served to Sonny at the piano?

5. Which of the following do the narrator and Sonny drink together?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Isabel realize that Sonny has left?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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