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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. 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?

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

3. 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?

4. The narrator in Part I says that for years she believed the reason the marigolds didn’t bloom was because she had done what?

5. What does Jane’s mother do when Jane asks her to play in the story from Part I?

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 second version represent?

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

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

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

5. What do Claudia and Frieda receive at the beginning of the school year in “Autumn”? What conversation consumes “the grownups” in the opening of this chapter?

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

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

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

9. What commotion begins when Rosemary “tattles” on Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola for “being nasty” in “Autumn”?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe and analyze the style, tone, and language used in the opening “Dick and Jane” story. How does the story change in each of the retellings? What is symbolic about the changes in the story’s language and style? Do you think the author intends for the reader to examine race as an undercurrent in the story? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Define the term “foreshadowing,” and discuss different reasons that an author may choose to use foreshadowing in his/her narrative. In what ways does foreshadowing develop suspense? What foreshadowing is presented in Part I of The Bluest Eye? How does the author’s use of foreshadowing here affect the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Describe and discuss racial discrimination within black communities in the United States. How and why, in the novel, is Maureen Peal depicted as being of a higher stature because of the lighter color of her skin tone? What discrimination does Maureen face in her community and in the white community?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 990 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample