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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 does Cleaver think Lyndon Johnson fears?

2. What kind of women does Cleaver claim that black men idolize?

3. Why does Cleaver think the government is starting to hand African Americans equal rights?

4. What does the man say he said to the traffic cop many times?

5. What does Cleaver compare the Negro Revolution to?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Cleaver think that the world needs police and the military?

2. What is the correlation between the Negro revolution and the war in Vietnam?

3. Why don't the younger men like the elderly black prisoner in Chapter 13?

4. What happened to the elderly man's childhood friend?

5. Why does Cleaver think President Johnson opposes sit-ins and teach-ins?

6. Why does Cleaver think it is a mistake to attack the police?

7. Why does Cleaver think that black men often despise their own women?

8. What does Cleaver say in his first letter to Beverly Axelrod?

9. How does Cleaver define the new left and the new right?

10. What does Cleaver write about their relationship in his second letter to Axelrod?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why did President Kennedy represent great hope for Afro-Americans? How did his death affect the Afro-American community? How do you think things would have been different if President Kennedy had lived?

Essay Topic 2

Look at the structure of the book.

1) Discuss elements of the narrative structure: exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the book's ideas?

2) Examine the way Cleaver uses other people in the story to express his ideas.

Essay Topic 3

Do the students think Cleaver is unrealistic by asking for American blacks to open discussions with Africans? What problems do the students think such discussions could cause?

(see the answer keys)

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