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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. Who heckles Maxwell during his speech in Chapter 12?

2. How many girls does Chief Nanga promise Odili?

3. What is the title of the poem Maxwell shows Odili?

4. Of Odili, Chief Nanga, and Elsie, who goes to bed first after dinner at Chief Nanga's house?

5. How does Odili manage to talk to Edna alone in Chapter 9?

Short Essay Questions

1. What characterizes Odili's arrival at his friend Maxwell's apartment?

2. What is the significance of the poem Maxwell wrote seven years ago?

3. How does Odili react to discovering that Elsie is sleeping with Chief Nanga?

4. Why do Boniface and the other bodyguards want 25 pounds, and why does Odili object?

5. What is the confusion about why Couple is put in jail?

6. Why is Couple's heckling of Maxwell effective?

7. What is the method of problem solving that Odili unconsciously employs while reconsidering his humiliation that occurred at the house of Chief Nanga?

8. What is significant about Odili and Edna's bicycle crash?

9. What significant action does Edna take toward Odili at the end of Chapter 10, and why is it significant?

10. What characterizes Odili's interaction with Chief Nanga at the Samalu house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the central importance of Edna to the story. Analyze how she helps change Odili, her struggle as a woman in a man's society, and how her personality traits influence her actions.

Essay Topic 2

The major theme of "A Man of the People" is the struggle of man against political corruption. Which characters embody corruption? Which characters embody the struggle against corruption? In what ways do the struggling characters fail, and how do the exemplars of corruption ultimately falter?

Essay Topic 3

What start as separate, if related, threads in the story -- revenge, politics and love -- become entangled in Odili's life. Discuss the entanglement of these various threads and explain how an action toward any one goal ends up affecting the others.

(see the answer keys)

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