View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who rails at Sonny about truancy?

2. What musician does Sonny applaud?

3. What color notebook does Sonny carry?

4. In what season does Grace die?

5. From where does Sonny send mail to the narrator?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does Isabel realize that Sonny has left?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sources attest to the presence of “Sonny’s Blues” on must-read lists. Assuming that such status reflects popularity, what accounts for the popularity of the short story? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the ending of the story. Does it satisfy? How or how not?

Essay Topic 3

To what genre other than jazz fiction might “Sonny’s Blues” be considered to belong? What in the text supports that identification? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 495 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample