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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 is Jane’s father described in the story in Part I?

2. In the story of Jane from Part I, Jane’s house has a door that is what color?

3. What does the narrator say has become of Pecola’s father in Part I?

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

5. With whom had Mr. Henry been living before taking a room from the MacTeer family?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. Who takes control of the situation when Pecola suddenly begins menstruating in Part II? How?

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

5. Describe the “Dick and Jane” reader presented in Part I. How does this excerpt change in each retelling?

6. What is the primary setting for the novel? How is the author connected to this setting?

7. What does the narrator discuss regarding property-owning black families and their motivations in “Autumn”?

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

9. What does Pecola pray for every night, according to the narrator in “Here is the Family…”? Why?

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 first version represent?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What adjectives and descriptive words are used in “See the Cat…” to describe the “types of girls” who come to Lorain from places like Mobile, Marietta, etc.? How do these girls differ from the “black girls” that Claudia and Frieda consider themselves? Do you think that the narrator views the girls as better than them, or simply as perceived as better?

Essay Topic 2

Define “narrative point of view,” and identify this in The Bluest Eye. Is the narrative of the “Dick and Jane” related in first, second, or third person? How does the narrative point of view change in the italicized preface in Part I? How does the narrative point of view and tense fluctuate within the novel?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss the major movie stars discussed in the narrative in Part II. When was Shirley Temple’s height of fame? What other actresses are discussed? What do they share in common? How is Pecola’s name related to the movies?

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