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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Cinderella's Stepsisters," Morrison's central claim is that women should not do what?
(a) Risk the gains women have made by trying to move forward too quickly.
(b) Participate in corrupt institutions.
(c) Oppress other women.
(d) Undermine feminism by being too nurturing.

2. In her "Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address," Morrison says that when you hate you become what?
(a) A victim.
(b) An addict.
(c) A monster.
(d) A slave.

3. In "Literature and Public Life," Morrison says that the public interest has been redefined as what?
(a) Class warfare.
(b) Extremism.
(c) Special interests.
(d) Private interest.

4. Where did Morrison go to school as a child?
(a) In desegregated private schools throughout America.
(b) In public schools in Florida that were suddenly segregated while she was a student.
(c) In segregated private schools in New York.
(d) In public schools in Ohio that had never been segregated.

5. Morrison compares the Africa of the Western imagination to what legendary monster?
(a) The Sphinx.
(b) Medusa.
(c) Leviathan.
(d) Grendel.

6. In "Literature and Public Life," Morrison opens by joking that because she was once a student at the place she is now speaking, what might happen after her speech?
(a) The university will decide to take her degree away.
(b) She will have to defend her speech before an academic committee.
(c) She will be charged tuition for the time she spent on campus giving the speech.
(d) She will be accused of plagiarizing the writer Toni Morrison.

7. "The War on Error" is a speech given to what group?
(a) ArtTable.
(b) Sarah Lawrence College.
(c) Amnesty International.
(d) The Newspaper Association of America.

8. What question does Morrison say is at the center of of government?
(a) Control over history's narrative.
(b) Cultural apartheid or integration.
(c) Creating peace and security.
(d) Distribution of wealth.

9. Morrison's reading of fiction about Africa written by non-African writers reminded her of what part of her childhood?
(a) When the church collection plate was passed to raise money for Africa.
(b) When she struggled to understand a movie set in Asia.
(c) Her own immigration to America from Ghana.
(d) The first time she was called a racial epithet.

10. In her "Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address," Morrison says that one of her aims is to do what?
(a) Criticize.
(b) Provoke.
(c) Reassure.
(d) Remember.

11. In "Race Matters," Morrison creates a metaphorical comparison between "race-specific, race-free" language and what?
(a) Civil rights actions like the Selma bridge march.
(b) A church.
(c) A borderless, safe, outdoor space.
(d) Romantic love.

12. In her "Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address," what irony is Morrison's discussion of "Feed the Children" campaigns intended to illustrate?
(a) The easy manipulation of well-educated people by supposedly uneducated people.
(b) The desire of wealthy Americans to spread a culture that other nations cannot afford.
(c) Generosity towards the vulnerable turning to violence as soon as the vulnerable try to advocate for themselves.
(d) Creative imagination being limited by our own wealth and power.

13. In the story that opens "The Nobel Lecture in Literature," where does the old woman say the answer to the children's question is?
(a) In their hands.
(b) She doesn't actually answer their question.
(c) In their hearts.
(d) In her eyes.

14. The ending of The Radiance of the King, according to Morrison, indicates that Clarence has undergone what kind of transformation?
(a) He fully inhabits Western ideals of masculinity.
(b) He learns to fear becoming like native Africans.
(c) He opens himself to the African gaze.
(d) He is now worthy of being a king.

15. In "The Individual Artist," what does Morrison find interesting about the feud between literary critics from different schools of criticism?
(a) Black authors are being centered in the canon for the first time.
(b) Structuralists see the work as a dynamic interaction between reader and text.
(c) There seems to be no place for the artist in the argument.
(d) It has been covered in the Times Literary Supplement.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "The Nobel Lecture in Literature," Morrison compares the old woman in the story to what?

2. In "The Future of Time," Morrison worries that we increasingly turn to the past for what?

3. According to "Harlem on My Mind," the term "postblack" refers to whom?

4. In "Moral Inhabitants," what is the list of American leaders meant to demonstrate?

5. "The War Against Error" is a fifteenth and sixteenth century effort to eliminate what kind of error?

(see the answer keys)

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