Print
Word
PDF
|
| Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. Where does the porter say he will return to school in the winter in Chapter 4?
2. The narrator states in Chapter 2, “In the life of every one there is a limited number of unhappy experiences which are not written upon the memory, but stamped there with” what?
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 “boiled to the consistency where it could be eaten with a fork” in Chapter 4?
5. By what age could the narrator play by ear all of the hymns and songs his mother knew?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is early education like for the narrator? When does he enter public school and how is this setting described?
2. What does the narrator discover when he encounters the porter at a dance in Chapter 5?
3. How does the motif of music apply in the novel? What is the narrator’s relationship to music?
4. How does the theme of identity apply to the novel? How does it apply to the narrator?
5. Who is the narrator of The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man? What secret does he discuss in Chapter 1?
6. How does dramatic irony relate to The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man?
7. Where did James Weldon Johnson attend university? How is this institution described?
8. When and where was the author of the book born and raised? How are his parents described?
9. To whom were African American narratives during the Reconstruction Era generally addressed? Why?
10. How is the second Pullman car porter described by the narrator in Chapter 4?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Define and identify motif in literature, and the motifs in the narrative. How does violence apply to the novel as a motif? In what ways does the narrator associate violence with the African American community? How does this differ from the white community?
Essay Topic 2
Describe and discuss the cigar industry in the late 1800s, early 1900s in Florida and Cuba. What were relations like at this time between Cuba and the United States? How many of the narrator’s coworkers hail from Cuba? What influences do they have on him?
Essay Topic 3
Discuss the theme of race relations in the novel. How is racial prejudice expressed through the language of the narrator during his childhood? How does the language influence the narrator’s views of African Americans and whites? What impact does this language have on readers today?
|
This section contains 897 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
|
