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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The narrator says in Part I that there were no marigolds in the fall of what year?
(a) 1932.
(b) 1936.
(c) 1941.
(d) 1927.

2. The author states in the Foreword, “In trying to dramatize the devastation that even casual racial contempt can cause I chose a unique situation, not" what?
(a) “A classic one.”
(b) “A realistic one.”
(c) “An imaginative one.”
(d) “A representative one.”

3. Part I of the novel begins with a story about a girl named Jane and her brother, who is named what?
(a) James.
(b) Bill.
(c) John.
(d) Dick.

4. Where is “that trifling Peggy” said to be from in Part II?
(a) Cleveland.
(b) Elyria.
(c) Lorain.
(d) Meridian.

5. The author states in the Foreword that her concept of breaking the narrative of the novel into parts "didn't work" because many readers "remain touched but not" what?
(a) “Moved.”
(b) “Enlightened.”
(c) “Informed.”
(d) “Guilty.”

6. How is Jane’s father described in the story in Part I?
(a) “Old and senile.”
(b) “Big and strong.”
(c) “Skinny and feeble.”
(d) “Weathered and angry.”

7. Who does Frieda say told her about menstruation in Part II?
(a) Sammy.
(b) Pecola.
(c) Claudia.
(d) Mildred.

8. How old is Sammy when he lives by the pizza parlor in the narrator’s description from Part II?
(a) 14.
(b) 11.
(c) 7.
(d) 6.

9. The narrator in Part I says that at first they thought there were no marigolds that fall because Pecola was what?
(a) Having her father’s baby.
(b) Depressed about life.
(c) Planning to kill her father.
(d) Praying for bad weather.

10. What does Jane’s mother do when Jane asks her to play in the story from Part I?
(a) She runs off.
(b) She cries.
(c) She screams.
(d) She laughs.

11. What does Claudia recall doing with her baby dolls as a child in Part II?
(a) Adoring them.
(b) Dismembering them.
(c) Playing house with them.
(d) Playing dress-up with them.

12. The narrator in Part I claims that “one must take refuge in” what?
(a) “Why.”
(b) “How.”
(c) “When.”
(d) “What.”

13. The girl who is described as the narrator’s “next-door friend who lives above her father’s café” in Part I is named Rosemary what?
(a) MacTeer.
(b) Villanucci.
(c) Yacobowski.
(d) Williams.

14. What pet does Jane first attempt to play with in the story from Part I?
(a) The cat.
(b) The goldfish.
(c) The dog.
(d) The hampster.

15. The narrator states in Part II, “The Breedloves did not live in a storefront because they were having temporary difficulty adjusting to the cutbacks at the plant. They lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed” what?
(a) “God would save them.”
(b) “They did not deserve any better.”
(c) “They were ugly.”
(d) “Their luck would change.”

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Toni Morrison in the book’s Foreword, “The extremity of Pecola's case stemmed largely from" what?

2. Of what dancer does Claudia say in Part II “was my friend, my uncle, my daddy, and who ought to have been soft-shoeing it and chuckling with me”?

3. Whose image is on the milk cup that Frieda brings to Pecola in Part II?

4. In what year does the author say in the Foreword that she began the “story” that would eventually lead to The Bluest Eye?

5. What does Toni Morrison refer to as the “most delicate member of society” in the book’s Foreword?

(see the answer keys)

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