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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. What does Wright use to deliver the groceries?

2. What does Wright do to avoid saying thank you?

3. Where does Wright's boss take the black woman to beat her?

4. What phrase is Wright worried the white man in the elevator will find insulting if he said it?

5. Who plies their trade at the hotel Wright works at?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do people in the clothing store react to the black women being beaten?

2. What job do the soldiers give Mann at the beginning of this chapter?

3. What happens to a black bellboy who has sex with a white prostitute?

4. How does Mann help the Heartfields in Chapter 12?

5. What does Big Boy think about while he waits in the hole?

6. What does Mann think about when he raises his ax to kill the family?

7. How do Big Boy's parent react when Big Boy tells them he has shot a white man?

8. Describe the confrontation between the boys and the couple in Chapter 5.

9. Describe Wright's work as a bellboy.

10. How does Mann die?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine violence in the novel.

1) What are differences in the stories between how black people are violent and how white people are violent?

2) In what way does the violence play an important part in getting Wright's view across?

3) How do the students think the public reacted to the novel's violence when it was first published? How would the public react to such a book today?

Essay Topic 2

Pick a character from the novel and discuss his goals and motives. Does he achieve his motives? Does he share similar goals and motives with other characters? Do his goals clash with other characters? How do the characters goals and motives affect their interaction with each other?

Essay Topic 3

Look at the structure of the book.

1) Discuss elements of the narrative structure: exposition, conflict, complication, climax, resolution and conclusion. Do all the elements make for a logical and linear story? How does the story's structure express the book's ideas?

2) Examine the way Wright uses other people in the story to express his ideas.

(see the answer keys)

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