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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What habit does the narrator say he picked up on very young that “makes the piano a sympathetic, singing instrument” in Chapter 2?
(a) Using the pedals.
(b) Playing the wrong notes.
(c) Playing the black keys.
(d) Playing with his eyes closed.

2. What does the tall man with the small, dark moustache drill a hole through in Chapter 1 as the narrator watches?
(a) A five-dollar silver piece.
(b) A two-dollar silver piece.
(c) A five-dollar gold piece.
(d) A ten-dollar gold piece.

3. What does the narrator have for breakfast that is described as “boiled to the consistency where it could be eaten with a fork” in Chapter 4?
(a) Crawfish.
(b) Collard greens.
(c) Chitlins.
(d) Hominy.

4. The narrator claims in Chapter 1, “As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little” what?
(a) Patsy.
(b) Aristocrat.
(c) Engineer.
(d) Citizen.

5. In Chapter 5, the narrator compares the black man and his fight to what bearing the “fury of the storm”?
(a) “The cedar tree.”
(b) “The willow tree.”
(c) “The bristlecone pine tree.”
(d) “The redwood tree.”

Short Answer Questions

1. How much money per week is the room that the narrator rents at the boarding house in the beginning of Chapter 5?

2. What term from Chapter 5 refers to a government led by a committee of military leaders?

3. What does the narrator describe surrounding the flowers in the front yard of his childhood home in Chapter 1?

4. What does the narrator have for breakfast that is described as “so light and flaky that a fellow with any appetite at all would have no difficulty in disposing of eight or ten” in Chapter 4?

5. What present does the narrator describe receiving from his father in Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. What popular dance does the narrator describe in Chapter 5? When did the dance develop?

2. Where did James Weldon Johnson attend university? How is this institution described?

3. How is the period in which the book is set described by the author? What was life like for African Americans?

4. What elements does the novel share with the Realist Movement in literary style?

5. What are “slave narratives”? How are they related to the narrative of The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man?

6. Who is the narrator of The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man? What secret does he discuss in Chapter 1?

7. Who is the narrator’s guide when he first arrives in Atlanta in Chapter 4? What are the narrator’s impressions of the city?

8. Into what classes does the narrator categorize African Americans in Chapter 5?

9. Where does the narrator hide his money at the rooming house in Chapter 4? Where does he go after this?

10. How does the theme of identity apply to the novel? How does it apply to the narrator?

(see the answer keys)

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