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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. The narrator says that when he was shown about the grounds of the university, he was especially interested in what building in Chapter 4?
(a) The gymnasium.
(b) The mathematics building.
(c) The industrial building.
(d) The library.

2. The narrator states in Chapter 2, “And this is the dwarfing, warping, distorting influence which operates upon each colored man in the United States. He is forced to take his outlook on all things, not from the viewpoint of a citizen, or a man, nor even a human being, but from the viewpoint of” what?
(a) “A coloured man.”
(b) “Society.”
(c) “An animal.”
(d) “A slave.”

3. According to the narrator in Chapter 2, the two immediate results of his “forced loneliness” were finding company in books and greater pleasure in what?
(a) Thought.
(b) Nature.
(c) Silence.
(d) Music.

4. The narrator states in Chapter 4 that he stood for an hour watching four or five men saving what by the road?
(a) A child.
(b) A dog.
(c) A mule.
(d) A cart of vegetables.

5. The narrator says in Chapter 1 that he feels “a sort of diabolical desire to gather up all the little tragedies” of his life and turn them into what?
(a) “Double rainbows.”
(b) “A practical joke on society.”
(c) “Fairy tales for the forgotten.”
(d) “Anecdotes on nature’s whimsy.”

Short Answer Questions

1. How much do the narrator and his companion each pay the waiter at the restaurant where they eat in Chapter 4?

2. To whom does the narrator say he became inseparable in school in Chapter 2?

3. Who does the narrator say stood at the head of his list of heroes for a long time in Chapter 2?

4. The narrator is earning how much money per week after working at the cigar factory for three months in Chapter 5?

5. By what age could the narrator play by ear all of the hymns and songs his mother knew?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does the motif of music apply in the novel? What is the narrator’s relationship to music?

4. How is segregation addressed when the narrator eats his first meal in Atlanta in Chapter 4?

5. In what ways does the narrator show blindness and naiveté regarding his race?

6. To whom were African American narratives during the Reconstruction Era generally addressed? Why?

7. How is the early childhood of the narrator described in Chapter 1? Where does he live?

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

9. How are the author’s teenage years described? For whom did he work and where?

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

(see the answer keys)

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