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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. 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) Under-watered them.
(b) Over-watered them.
(c) Planted them too shallow.
(d) Planted them too deep.

2. The author states in the book’s Foreword that in constructing the narrative she did not want to do what to "the characters who trashed Pecola and contributed to her collapse"?
(a) Justify their actions.
(b) Dehumanize them.
(c) Make them into martyrs.
(d) Make them seem human.

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

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

5. Mrs. MacTeer exclaims during her diatribe in Part II, “I got about as much business with another mouth to feed as a cat has with” what?
(a) “A wheelbarrow.”
(b) “A top hat.”
(c) “A wristwatch.”
(d) “Side pockets.”

Short Answer Questions

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

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?

3. Who is described as “still trotting up and down Sixteenth Street talking to herself” in Part II?

4. The narrator in Part I claims that “one must take refuge in” what?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. 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?

2. For what reason does the Breedlove family stay in the apartment, according to the narrator in “Here is the House…”?

3. What important symbolic images are presented in the opening “Dick and Jane” reader and the preface in Part I?

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

5. 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?

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

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

8. What foreshadowing is revealed by the narrator in the end of Part I?

9. How does the narrator compare the state of being “put out” with being “outdoors” in “Autumn”?

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

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