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

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. The author states in the book's Foreword that when one is "hated for things we have no control over and cannot change," it is some consolation to know what?

4. 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?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How is Mr. Henry described in “Autumn”? What is his role in the MacTeer home?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 third version represent?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the character of Claudia MacTeer as the narrator of much of the novel. How old is Claudia in the opening of the narrative? Do you like this character? Why or why not? How does Claudia change in the course of the story?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Describe and discuss the character of Pecola in The Bluest Eye. Is Pecola the protagonist of the novel, or is the protagonist Claudia? Why do you believe this? How does Pecola’s character evolve from the beginning of the story to the end? How does her evolution affect Claudia and Frieda?

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