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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 does the author of "Lonely in America" say she would likely have handled being enslaved?

2. What major event happened upon Phillis Wheatley's return to America from London?

3. What kind of trees does the speaker of the poem "Homegoing, AD" by Kima Jones see that let her know they are close to their destination?

4. How many hours does the road trip described in "Homegoing, AD" by Kima Jones last?

5. In what social media platform did Jesmyn Ward find solace after Trayvon Martin's death?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What are the elements of James Baldwin's life and character that Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah describes as being off-putting to her at one point in her life?

4. How did a quote within James Baldwin's book The Fire Next Time inspire Jesmyn ward to put together her own collection to create The Fire This Time?

5. How does Honoree Fanonne Jeffers's interpretation of "On Being Brought From Africa to America" differ from those of many scholars?

6. What proof, if any, did Honoree Fanonne Jeffers discover through her research that Phillis Wheatley's 1834 biographer had been related to Susannah Wheatley, Phillis Wheatley's mistress?

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

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

9. In what ways does the author of "The Dear Pledges of Our Love: A Defense of Phillis Wheatley's Husband" demonstrate how difficult it can be to extricate oneself from the biases present within the American culture's views of black people?

10. To what conclusion does Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah ultimately come to about the desire to "preserve things" (31)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the use of Aristotle's appeals within a particular essay and how the author employs the three appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos in order to put forth a solid argument.

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

Several of the works within The Fire This Time focus on family relationships. Choose three of these works and discuss how they work together to send a larger message about race and family across the collection.

(see the answer keys)

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