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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 Equiano see in Philadelphia that pleases him?

2. What dream does Equiano have on the way back from Cadiz?

3. Where has Equiano traveled since the first edition of his Narrative was published?

4. After the rescue team arrives in New Providence and heads to Georgia, what happens to them?

5. What is the profession of the dying man who Captain Farmer cares for in his illness?

Short Essay Questions

1. When Equiano decides he needs to find a religion to commit to (after his trip to the North Pole), how does he begin his search?

2. Compare Phillips to Farmer.

3. How do Equiano's experiences in Georgia reflect on the conditions for free black men in the U.S. South before the Civil War?

4. Why does Equiano decide to leave Dr. Irving's plantation?

5. How does the episode in which Phillips's crew see a flock of flamingos characterize the crew?

6. Why do you think Equiano goes back and forth so much between going to sea and other ways of making a living, like hairdressing?

7. Explain Equiano's economic argument for ending slavery.

8. Describe and comment on Equiano's experiences with the Sierra Leone settlement.

9. Does the manumission of Equiano seem like a high point to this autobiography?

10. How does his experience of being "born again" change Equiano's attitude toward life?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the importance and role of literacy in Equiano's life as described throughout The Interesting Narrative.

Essay Topic 2

The word "interesting" as used in the title of The Interesting Narrative would have had at least two meanings for eighteenth-century readers. "Interesting" would have meant, as it still does today, something like "entertaining" or at least "not boring." In addition, "interesting" would have meant something like "sympathetic." In other words, it would have meant that the narrative was likely to make the readers "interested in" or sympathetic to Equiano. Based on the title, then, the autobiography has the dual goals of entertaining the reader and making the reader sympathize with the author. How well does the book achieve these two goals?

Essay Topic 3

Since The Interesting Narrative follows Equiano from childhood to adulthood, it is a story of a boy growing up as well as of a man seeking freedom and a spiritual home. How is Equiano's transition from childhood to adulthood affected by the fact that he is taken into slavery as an adolescent boy? How does the book show readers that transition?

(see the answer keys)

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