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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. Whom of the following succeeds Tut in Samuel’s kitchen?

2. What is the name of the archive librarian at Ailey’s graduate school?

3. Whom of the following attends Lydia’s funeral?

4. In what year is Nick’s letter to Samuel dated?

5. What is Oludara’s initial offer of pay to Ailey?

Short Essay Questions

1. To what labor is Gideon put after being transported to what would become Georgia?

2. For what reason is Lonny Maxwell dismissed from teaching?

3. Why does Whitcomb chide Ailey for her use of “we” in class?

4. How does Rebecca regard Ailey’s presence in their common graduate program?

5. How does Ailey address Rebecca’s questions about the Pinchard descent of her own family?

6. What bias does Ailey note is at work among the interviewers for the Federal Writers’ Project?

7. How does Coco become aware of Ailey’s duplicity?

8. How does Whitcomb explain his pressing Ailey harder than other students?

9. How does Lady explain the departure of her parents to her children?

10. How does Ailey arrive at the idea of attending graduate school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explicate the significance of the name of any one character in the text.

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Consider the title of the novel. Explicate its significance against the text of the book.

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This section contains 514 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample