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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 many times does the narrator say he has experienced direct discrimination based on race in Chapter 13?

2. How much older is Nestor Lopez than the narrator?

3. What did Hominy call the opposite of white flight in Chapter 12 (170)?

4. What city is described as "the City That Never Stops Bleeding" by the narrator in "City Lites, An Interlude"?

5. Why does the narrator say he was struggling with growing potatoes in Chapter 18?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do the neighborhood children gather in the narrator's yard in Chapter 15?

2. How does Foy Cheshire respond to the signs announcing the establishment of Wheaton Academy?

3. How does the narrator respond to Hominy's suggestions for new class systems in Dickens in Chapter 18?

4. Why have the three cities that Dickens matched with refused to be sister cities?

5. What is "Whitey Week" and how is it defined in Chapter 20?

6. Whom did Marpessa marry after leaving the narrator? How has her life changed?

7. Who is Jon McJones and where does the narrator encounter him?

8. Why does the narrator slip out of the meeting in Chapter 19?

9. What does the apple tree symbolize in Chapter 18?

10. What is burned at the ending of Career Day at Chaff Middle School? Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What effects do the segregation signs on Marpessa's bus have? How does the narrator extend segregation beyond the bus? What indicators does the narrator erect to do so?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the depictions of white Americans in The Sellout. How are whites perceived by the inhabitants of Dickens? In what ways do the actions of the narrator and Hominy satirize white American history and culture?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of racism in The Sellout. How does the author develop this theme through setting and characters? How is the theme related to symbolism and imagery in the novel? What statements do you think the author is making about racism? Why?

(see the answer keys)

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