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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How much milk does Mrs. MacTeer complain about having disappeared from her refrigerator overnight in Part II?
(a) 3 quarts.
(b) 1 quart.
(c) 2 quarts.
(d) 3 gallons.

2. In speaking of Pecola’s father in Part I, the narrator says, “Our innocence and faith were no more productive than his” what?
(a) “Evil and sadness.”
(b) “Criminal behavior.”
(c) “Immoral thinking.”
(d) “Lust or despair.”

3. The narrator in Part II describes the adults as treating illness in children with what?
(a) Contempt.
(b) Sympathy.
(c) Empathy.
(d) Mercy.

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

5. The author states in the book’s Foreword, “Beauty was not simply something to behold; it was" what?
(a) “Something that could remind.”
(b) “Something one could do.”
(c) “Something that could inspire.”
(d) “Something to cherish.”

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the narrator in Part II, who “spent all their energies, all their love, on their nests”?

2. The narrator says in Part II, “So when I think of autumn, I think of somebody with hands who does not want” what?

3. What does Jane’s father do when Jane asks him to play in the story from Part I?

4. What does Pecola’s mother demand that Pecola’s father get out of bed and go get for her in their argument in Part II?

5. The author writes in the novel's Foreword that when she began writing The Bluest Eye, she was interested in the "far more tragic and disabling consequences of accepting rejection as" what?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Pecola Breedlove come to live with the MacTeers in “Autumn”?

2. Is the setting of the novel focused on a specific societal group, or is the setting inclusive of different racial groups?

3. How are Claudia’s feelings about Shirley Temple and about baby dolls illustrated in “Autumn”?

4. Who can be seen in Part I as characters that face trouble assimilating into “white society’s standards of beauty”?

5. What information is related to the reader in the brief italicized preface before “Autumn”?

6. According to some critics, the three versions of the reader presented on the first page of The Bluest Eye represent three lifestyles presented in the novel. What does the first version represent?

7. How is the MacTeer home described in “Autumn”? How are the relationships between the children and the adults characterized?

8. Describe the narrative style of the novel. Who narrates the opening passages before “Autumn”?

9. How did author Toni Morrison perceive the Civil Rights Movement’s slogan “Black is Beautiful”? How is this seen in the novel?

10. According to some critics, the three versions of the reader presented on the first page of The Bluest Eye represent three lifestyles presented in the novel. What does the second version represent?

(see the answer keys)

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