View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of animal does Big Boy see come out of the kiln?

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

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

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

5. What does Wright have to do when he sees a white man in the elevator?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What does Wright say his mother taught him in the opening section?

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

4. What happens to Mann when the Heartfield family identifies him as the killer?

5. Describe Wright's work as a bellboy.

6. Why do Wright's co-workers at the optical factory not like him?

7. How does Mann help out at the hospital?

8. What work do the black men do at the cement plant?

9. How do the boys give the made up word "quall" meaning?

10. What happens to Wright when his boss tells him to deliver groceries to a white neighborhood after dark?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Examine the relationship between Communism and Christianity.

1) In what way is Communism the opposite of Christianity?

2) Why does Wright show Communism as a forward move for black people?

Essay Topic 2

What rules did the Southern whites enforce on the blacks? How did they blacks eventually manage to overturn such laws? How important were people like Richard Wright in highlighting the stupidity of such rules?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the whites' oppression of black people.

1) In what way could it be said that it was to the whites' benefit that they keep the black people down?

2) How much of the oppression was pure racism and how much was it due to fear? What did the white man fear?

3) In what way could it be said the equality between races has benefited society?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 831 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample