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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. How was Hughes initiated into his fraternity?

2. Who did Rudolph Fisher sing with while he was in college?

3. What was the "Interstate Tattler?"

4. What was Troutbeck?

5. What job did Hughes finally find once he moved to Washington D.C,?

Short Essay Questions

1. What poem did Hughes submit in Witter Bynner's Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Contest? How did the poem fare?

2. Why did Hughes travel to Italy for the summer? Where did he stay?

3. What was hazing at Lincoln University? What kinds of things did hazing involve? What was Hughes's initiation ritual for his fraternity?

4. While he was still in college, how did Hughes meet the woman who was to become his patron? What story did Hughes tell about their first meeting?

5. How did Hughes describe the wedding of Countee Cullen? Why was the wedding the talk of Harlem for a time? How was Hughes involved?

6. Who was Annette, and why was she fired from the Grand Duc? What happened on her last night at the club?

7. What happened to Hughes on his was back to France that changed his travel plans?

8. What survey did Hughes conduct at his college during his senior year? Why was this issue important to Hughes?

9. What benefit cabaret was hosted by the NAACP to which Hughes was invited? Who did he meet there? Who was singing at the club when he entered?

10. Where was the Interracial Conference Hughes attended during his sophomore year located? What story did Hughes tell about this conference?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hughes opened his autobiography with the line "Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pull" and closed it with "Literature is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling." Discuss these two statements and how they pertain to Hughes, his autobiography, and his life.

Essay Topic 2

One of the issues Hughes raised again and again in his book was that of race. He often remarked on the color of his skin, whether he was a "black man" in one country and not in another. What are some of the major threads of the theme of race that run through Hughes's book? Why are they an important part of Hughes's autobiography?

Essay Topic 3

When Hughes boarded the S.S. Malone, he brought a box with him on the ship. One night shortly after the ship embarked on its journey to Africa, Hughes dumped the contents of his box into the ocean. This was an important event in Hughes' life. What was in the box that was thrown overboard, and why did Hughes toss everything into the ocean? What did he hope to change in his life by this symbolic act?

(see the answer keys)

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