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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. The porter tells the narrator that he has not had how many hours of sleep since he left Jersey City in Chapter 4?

2. What term from the book refers to “the boys who pulled the long stems from the tobacco leaves”?

3. What does the narrator describe under the shed in the backyard of his childhood home in Chapter 1?

4. How does the narrator say he changed his attitudes toward his peers after the discovery that he was biracial?

5. What book does the narrator describe as having “used to lie in splendid neglect on the center table in our little parlor” in Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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. What event takes place informing the narrator of his ethnic heritage in his early years? How does he react to the information?

7. What does the narrator discover when he encounters the porter at a dance in Chapter 5?

8. How is the first Pullman car porter described by the narrator? Where does the narrator meet him?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and discuss the popular dance called the cake-walk. When did this dance originate? How did it evolve over time? What does the narrator say in praise of the dance in Chapter 5?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the laws regarding interracial marriage and betrothal during the late 1800s-early 1900s. When were anti-miscegenation laws introduced in the United States? When were they repealed? Were European countries similar or different in their regulations? How?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the character of the narrator’s mother and her relationship with the narrator in his youth. Why does the narrator’s mother not inform him of his heritage before he discovers the truth at school? How do the other students react to the narrator’s misunderstanding with the principal? How does the narrator’s discovery of his black heritage influence his personal view of himself and of the others around him?

(see the answer keys)

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