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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. In Thurman's story, who asks why he should focus only on his African roots when he has Indian and German roots as well?

2. What term is coined to mean that African Americans do not produce art specific to their race due to the absorption of American ways?

3. What is the title of the poem by Hughes that explains how life is not always a straight path, but a journey to rise?

4. Who is the author of "Song of the Son"?

5. What does Cullen seem to indicate about heaven in her poem "She of the Dancing Feet Sings"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss the significance of the writing style in Cuney's poem, "Conception".

2. Discuss what Hughes's poem "Mother to Son" addresses.

3. Discuss what happens in Wallace Thurman's "Infants of Spring".

4. Discuss what Blake's interview with Nathan Irvin Huggins is concerned with.

5. Describe the term "jook".

6. Discuss Fenton Johnson story "The Banjo Player".

7. Explain what Schuyler's essay "Our Greatest Gift to America" is about.

8. Discuss what James Weldon Johnson says about Dunbar as a poet in "The Book of American Negro Poetry".

9. Discuss what Hughes addresses in his essay, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain".

10. Discuss what happens in "Go Down Death" by James Weldon Johnson.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast how the term renaissance applies to the literature of "Voices from the Harlem Renaissance" and how America had its own literary renaissance in the early 1900s.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the common theme and idea of the authors in the first section, "New Negro Radicalism". What defines someone as an "old" or "new" Negro? Explain how these categories emphasize the common mentality of these authors?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the role of Negro magazines and newspapers during the early 1900s, specifically "The Messenger" and "Fire". What was the purpose of the contents of the works and how does this provide a deeper insight for the reader to better understand the issues of the time?

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This section contains 817 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample