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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Grendel and His Mother," what claim does Morrison make for Beowulf?
(a) It equals our modern knowledge of reality.
(b) It functions as a mirror for our own time.
(c) It is an artifact of an irrelevant time.
(d) It exposes how values have shifted in Western culture.

2. Which is the best definition of "churlish" as used in "Unspeakable Things Unspoken"?
(a) Rude, mean-spirited.
(b) Innocent, childlike.
(c) Remote, unobtainable.
(d) Scholarly, didactic.

3. Who is Margaret Garner?
(a) A Mississippi civil rights leader from the post-Civil War era.
(b) The artist who supplied Morrison with the images that are the basis of Sula.
(c) A Black woman who, in the mid-1800's, killed her own daughter.
(d) A critic who questioned Morrison's treatment of men in her works.

4. In "The Site of Memory," Morrison says that a large part of her "literary heritage" is what?
(a) The Western canon.
(b) Fiction.
(c) Poetry.
(d) Autobiography.

5. Morrison began Beloved after seeing what?
(a) An argument between her mother and one of her friends.
(b) Her father in the hospital.
(c) A newspaper clipping.
(d) The arrest of a Black girl.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "The Source of Self-Regard," what does Morrison say is a problem with writing novels that are based in history?

2. What is one of the main subjects of Beloved?

3. In "God's Language," Morrison says that she does not keep a writer's notebook because of what?

4. In "Faulkner and Women," what effect does Morrison say Faulkner has had on her writing?

5. 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?

Short Essay Questions

1. In “James Baldwin Eulogy,” Morrison explains that Baldwin brought "three gifts." What is this an allusion to, and how does it function in this piece?

2. In “Unspeakable Things Unspoken," who does Morrison credit with opening up the canon, and how would she like to see it further expanded?

3. According to “Goodbye to All That: Race, Surrogacy, and Farewell," what have been the changes over time in the literary handling of relationships between women of different races?

4. In “Rememory," Morrison describes her writing process using memory and explains how it is similar to a thematic and narrative element in one of her books. What is her process, and which book's narrative does she see it reflected in.

5. In “James Baldwin Eulogy,” what does Morrison describe as Baldwin's contribution to language?

6. In “Introduction of Peter Sellars," what are the main points of Morrison's praise for Peter Sellars as an artist?

7. In “The Site of Memory," what does Morrison say about how image and memory interacted for her in relation to her father's death and Song of Solomon?

8. In “Invisible Ink," Morrison proposes that current ways of thinking about the interaction between reader and text are missing an element: the "invisible ink" that can manipulate the reader. Explain what she means by this.

9. What point is Morrison trying to illustrate when she brings up Moby Dick in “Unspeakable Things Unspoken"?

10. According to “The Writer Before the Page," what is the relationship between Hannah Peace and Sula?

(see the answer keys)

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