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. The King of Dahomey, on whose behalf Cudjo was captured and sold into slavery, is said to have maintained an army of how many people?

2. The King of Dahomey at the time of Cudjo's capture had what name?

3. What is the penalty for killing a leopard and failing to bring the king its required body parts, according to Cudjo?

4. Whom does Cudjo name as the agent responsible for finding a man wives to add to his family?

5. What objects are required to be brought to the king once a leopard has been killed, according to Cudjo?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Cudjo mean when he tells Hurston that his family "ain' got no ivory be de door" (19)?

2. Explain the customs followed by the wives of a deceased man in Cudjo's former African community.

3. What reason does Cudjo give for having another visitor the first day Zora Neale Hurston comes to interview him at his home?

4. What is Zora Neale Hurston's purpose for including a photograph of a doorway just prior to the Preface of Barracoon?

5. Describe the death rituals Cudjo describes as being followed within his former African community.

6. What gift does Zora Neale Hurston bring to Cudjo the second time she comes to his home to interview him and what is his reaction to the gift?

7. In the Preface, Hurston states her reasons for faithfully representing Cudjo's story "without the intrusion of interpretation" (3). What does she mean?

8. How does Hurston distinguish between the two types of gifts she brings to Cudjo at the start of Chapter IV and why does she make this distinction?

9. What is the custom Cudjo describes that involves the whiskers of a leopard?

10. What are the circumstances of Zora Neale Hurston first meeting with Cudjo?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does Hurston's use of the third person point of view serve her purposes over the course of the book? Discuss how Hurston’s choice of point of view at certain points within the text helps to advance her treatment of at least three particular themes within the text.

Essay Topic 2

What is the symbolism and purpose of the photograph of the doorway included prior to Zora Neale Hurston’s epigraph?

Essay Topic 3

What ultimate message is Hurston's book Barracoon sending about the mythical qualities of the United States and its historical treatment of people of color?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,129 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample