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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. In what month does Samuel typically sell enslaved persons?

2. With which of the following does the novel begin?

3. In what year is it arranged that Ailey will transfer high schools?

4. In what medical field does Geoffrey work?

5. With which of the following does Song (4) begin?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Ailey argue that the strategy to increase male enrollment at Routledge is a failure?

2. What is the doctrine of partus sequitur ventrem?

3. Throughout the book, a number of women use botanical contraceptives. What are those discussed earliest in the novel?

4. Why does Ailey regard the teachers at her second high school as “serious pushovers” (96)?

5. Kiné’s father holds the rank of marabout; what does that rank signify in the novel (131)?

6. On what is Ailey’s college savings spent, rather than her own collegiate study?

7. How does Coco explain having changed her hairstyle in college?

8. What does Ailey note attracted Belle to the house in which she raised her children?

9. Why do Diane and her husband separate?

10. Why does Root dislike homecoming at his college?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

To what extent can the novel be taken as autobiographical? What in the novel and its context of composition suggests as much, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

How reliable is the primary narrator of the novel? What in the text indicates that reliability, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

What function does the back matter serve for the novel? How is that effect achieved?

(see the answer keys)

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