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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. By which of the following is Araminta’s father reported to be employed?

2. As which of the following do the narrator and Nigel relabel Penny’s birthday?

3. To which of the following does Octavia compare Dinah?

4. To which of the following does the narrator compare Nzinga?

5. As which of the following does the narrator note Penny’s friends refer to him?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does the narrator note as the inciting incident for his wanting to have Nigel demelanized?

2. What does the narrator expect to hear from his father when he visits him in prison?

3. What reasons are given for disbelief in ADZE’s complicity in the mall attack?

4. How does the narrator characterize his relationship with Nigel after having drugged him (261)?

5. How does the narrator describe Booker T. Elementary when he follows Nigel there?

6. What does the narrator identify as “The problem with going to a grocery store when you’re the noncooking partner” (215)?

7. What image does the narrator report BEG uses to conceive of the United States?

8. What does the narrator note was on sale at earlier festivals at the Tiko?

9. What reasons are given to the narrator for asking him to be BEG’s official spokesperson?

10. What outcome from the attack on the festival does the narrator note for PHH?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Early on, the narrator notes the contents of Octavia’s library, which include Eyes without a Face, The Hip Hop Ontologist’s View of Leda and the Swan, and Blackstone’s Law; Octavia notes that the books are “real, but mainly for effect” (8). What effect are they likely to have, and why?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the novel, the narrator makes repeated reference to Grand Marnier, more than to any other alcohol. Explicate the significance of the liquor.

Essay Topic 3

The narrator muses that “It sometimes felt like we [the narrator and Jo Jo] were the only people in the world who experienced the whiplash and loss of those years, because no one else talked about that era. Not that Jo Jo and I did” (82). What similar era exists in your life? What makes it similar? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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