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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. Of what feeling does the author of "Lonely in America" say she had been trying to cure in herself as a "strategy to ward off future misery" (34)?

2. What two reptiles are the source of the danger during the final scene of Kima Jones's prose poem "Homegoing, A.D."?

3. What company did Jesmyn Ward use in order to obtain a report of her genetic ancestry?

4. Who was the author of Memoir and Poems of Phyllis Wheatley, a Native African and a Slave?

5. What finding in the results of Jesmyn Ward's genetic testing results shocked her?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reasons does Jesmyn Ward provide for her claim that it is "impossible for most black Americans to construct full family trees" (91)?

2. How does Carol Anderson refute the idea that the Brown vs. Board of Education decision was a complete triumph for black advancement in America?

3. What are the examples the author of "Where Do We Go from Here" uses in order to prove that African-Americans are currently living through a second Nadir?

4. What are the three things Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah says are the only things she knows about being black in America?

5. What connection does Carol Anderson make between the Great Recession and the plight of modern African-Americans?

6. How is Jesmyn Ward's experience of receiving her genetic ancestry results different from the experiences of her parents?

7. What is the main claim being made regarding a Nadir within the essay "Where Do We Go from Here"?

8. What does Jesmyn Ward list among the issues with which black people in America are exhausted?

9. In her essay entitled "White Rage," what distinction does Carol Anderson make between white rage and black rage?

10. What stories and experiences does Jesmyn Ward provide to the reader in order to demonstrate the depth of her identification with the black identity?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many different areas of the United States are discussed within the works included in The Fire This Time. Discuss the sense of place contained in three particular essays and how the discussion of the sense of place helps each author further his or her message regarding race in America.

Essay Topic 2

Many pieces within the collection The Fire This Time portray interactions between people of different cultures. Choose three of these pieces and compare and contrast how each author uses stories of the interactions between cultures in order to send their messages regarding race and culture in America or elsewhere in the world.

Essay Topic 3

Explore the motifs of fire, water, and earth present within the works collected in The Fire This Time.

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This section contains 1,125 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample