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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "The Site of Memory," what tactic does Morrison point out in slave narratives?
(a) Engaging the audience through vivid description of slavery's brutality.
(b) Challenging the audience with frequent, pointed rhetorical questions.
(c) Appealing to audience by assuming the reader's nobility and morality.
(d) Creating audience sympathy through obvious appeals to pathos.

2. In "Introduction to Peter Sellars," Morrison praises his work for being what?
(a) Both accessible and challenging.
(b) Aware of the boundaries between Self and Other.
(c) Both feminist and scholarly.
(d) Critical of racial hierarchies.

3. In "Tribute to Romare Bearden," Morrison focuses her attention on the relationship between what and Bearden's art?
(a) Black nationalism.
(b) History.
(c) Her own writing.
(d) Music.

4. In "Rememory," Morrison complains that a racist society has what effect on her as a writer?
(a) It makes her feel burdened by her Blackness.
(b) It prevents her from being honest.
(c) It hobbles her imagination.
(d) It makes her question her talent.

5. In "Academic Whispers," who does Morrison say should be asked to speak about racism?
(a) Racists.
(b) Historians.
(c) Writers.
(d) Victims of racism.

6. In "Gertrude Stein and the Difference She Makes," what element does Morrison say is an aspect of the European American response to chaos lacking in the indigenous response?
(a) Disrespect.
(b) Meditation.
(c) Pragmatism.
(d) Wonder.

7. In "The Trouble with Paradise," Morrison claims that in the modern world, what has become "trivial"?
(a) Justice.
(b) Religion.
(c) Morailty.
(d) Paradise.

8. Why is "panoply" a clever piece of diction as used in "Unspeakable Things Unspoken"?
(a) It has a secondary meaning that has to do with arms and armor.
(b) It is part of the alliteration that creates rhythm in the passage.
(c) It has negative connotations that support the irony in the essay's tone.
(d) It is another pun, echoing the essay's opening.

9. In "Invisible Ink," Morrison says that she would like to read a book where what is left ambiguous?
(a) The setting.
(b) The meaning of symbolism.
(c) The conclusion.
(d) The narrator's gender.

10. In "The Source of Self-Regard," what does Morrison say is a problem with writing novels that are based in history?
(a) The historical research can start to take over the story.
(b) No one analytically questions history.
(c) Readers are alienated by history.
(d) There is not much accurate history available.

11. In "The Writer Before the Page," Morrison explains what about the structure of her novels?
(a) She dislikes nonlinear narrative.
(b) She finds chapter and part designations unhelpful.
(c) She always begins with a careful outline.
(d) She is frustrated when the parts feel fragmentary.

12. Morrison's novel "Paradise" is set where?
(a) In an unnamed kingdom.
(b) In an all-Black town.
(c) In Jerusalem.
(d) In New York during the Jazz Age.

13. In "Grendel and His Mother," Morrison notes the significance of what characteristic of Grendel's mother?
(a) Her lack of speech.
(b) Her size.
(c) Her intelligence.
(d) Her capacity for forgiveness.

14. In "The Trouble with Paradise," Morrison says that writers must hold "an unblinking gaze into the realm of" what?
(a) Inequality.
(b) Difference.
(c) Death.
(d) Sorrow.

15. In "The Trouble with Paradise," Morrison says she knows how whiteness "matures and ascends the throne of universalism." What is the best descriptor of this phrase?
(a) Morrison uses sibilance to suggest that whiteness is demonic.
(b) Morrison personifies whiteness in order to attribute dark motives to its actions.
(c) Morrison metaphorically compares whiteness to a royal leader and universalism to a kingdom.
(d) Morrison uses royal imagery to establish the legitimacy of white universalism.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Hard, True, and Lasting," Morrison says that she can tolerate being alienated from the dominant culture because she knows what?

2. In "The Site of Memory," Morrison remarks on the absence of what in slave narratives?

3. In "God's Language," what does Morrison say is the place of religion in African American culture?

4. In "On Beloved," Morrison says that one thing that frustrates her is the absence of Black girls where?

5. In "God's Language," what does Morrison say gets more attention than paradise?

(see the answer keys)

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