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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) “Informed.”
(c) “Enlightened.”
(d) “Guilty.”

2. In the story of Jane from Part I, Jane’s family lives in a house that is what colors?
(a) Green and white.
(b) Gold and blue.
(c) Blue and green.
(d) Green and gold.

3. According to the narrator in Part II, who “spent all their energies, all their love, on their nests”?
(a) “Poor Hispanic people.”
(b) “Poor white people.”
(c) “Propertied black people.”
(d) “Rich white people.”

4. In what year does the author say The Bluest Eye began to take the form of a book in the Foreword?
(a) 1958.
(b) 1965.
(c) 1969.
(d) 1954.

5. The narrator in Part I says that for years she believed the reason the marigolds didn’t bloom was because she had done what?
(a) Over-watered them.
(b) Under-watered them.
(c) Planted them too shallow.
(d) Planted them too deep.

6. What magic trick does Mr. Henry perform when he meets the narrator and her sister in Part II?
(a) He makes his thumb disappear.
(b) He pulls a rabbit from a hat.
(c) He makes a penny disappear.
(d) He saws a lady in half.

7. How old does the narrator say she is in Part II?
(a) 9.
(b) 7.
(c) 11.
(d) 15.

8. 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) “An imaginative one.”
(b) “A representative one.”
(c) “A classic one.”
(d) “A realistic one.”

9. In Part II, the narrator says that “drunken men with sober eyes sing in the lobby” of what hotel?
(a) “The Spanish hotel.”
(b) “The English hotel.”
(c) “The Greek hotel.”
(d) “The Polish hotel.”

10. The author describes The Bluest Eye as having begun as a bleak narrative of what in the Foreword?
(a) Physical arson.
(b) Psychological murder.
(c) Psychological rape.
(d) Physical burglary.

11. According to Toni Morrison in the book’s Foreword, “The extremity of Pecola's case stemmed largely from" what?
(a) “A crippled and crippling family.”
(b) “A series of bad choices.”
(c) “Societal pressures.”
(d) “The poorest of luck.”

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

13. Who arrives to play with Jane at the end of the story in Part I?
(a) Her brother.
(b) Her mother.
(c) A friend.
(d) Her father.

14. The narrator states in Part II, “The only living thing in the Breedloves' house was” what?
(a) “The bed.”
(b) “The kitchen sink.”
(c) “The coal stove.”
(d) “The couch.”

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What actress does Claudia claim to like, causing her sister and Pecola to give her a puzzled look and consider her incomprehensible, in Part II?

2. What color is Jane’s dress in the story from Part I?

3. 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?

4. The narrator in Part II says that her family’s house is “old, cold” and what color?

5. Where is the abandoned store that is described in Part II as “on the southeast corner of Broadway and Thirty-fifth Street”?

(see the answer keys)

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