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

Short Answer Questions

1. Who does CJ say he will beat up?

2. What rumor is going around about Buddy?

3. Who do the police arrest?

4. Who does Laura accuse of killing Buddy?

5. Who seems smitten with Marietta?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Chapter 17, "Lights Out" is significant in that it is where Laura begins to make choices that set her on the path that leads out of the Garden of Eden. Answer the following questions in a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. How is the title of this chapter symbolic of where Laura is in her life by the end of this chapter?

2. What are some actions Laura takes that show her descent into darkness? Could she have avoided them or was she already too far into the grips of greed and addictions?

3. What do you think Marty would have done if Laura had changed her mind at any point in the book and chosen a path of greater integrity for her role in the church?

4. How do you think Marty responds to Laura's absence from the church and his source of funds being dried up? Do you think Essie has a fight on her hands?

Essay Topic 2

This book was written during a literary movement called the "Harlem Renaissance." It is an important movement in the United States, not just in literature, but in many other areas. Answer the following questions in a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. Research the movement known as the "Harlem Renaissance" (also known as the Black Literary Renaissance and the New Negro Movement) and give a synopsis of what it is and what areas it encompassed.

2. How does this movement impact the lives of African-Americans at this time? Of other Blacks in other countries? Of Whites?

3. Discuss some of the accomplishments of this movement in the literary field and in at least three other areas of the social/political environment.

Essay Topic 3

The author continually foreshadows future events in earlier chapters. Choose one of the following questions and write a well-developed, cohesive essay using examples from the text and your research or personal experience:

1. What is the purpose of foreshadowing? Is it necessary? Why do you think this author chooses to use a great deal of foreshadowing? Do you think he includes too much foreshadowing? Or not enough? Explain.

2. Choose two major events that occur near the end of the book and trace how those events have been foreshadowed. Was the foreshadowing successful? Was it necessary? If there had been no foreshadowing, would you have responded differently to the events?

3. Foreshadowing seldom is as clear in "real" life as in novels. Discuss the idea that much of life is foreshadowed using specific examples from your own or others' lives.

(see the answer keys)

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