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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 does Denver think Beloved is?

2. Why did Sethe get fired?

3. What does Paul D wonder aloud?

4. What does Sethe decide about Beloved?

5. Whose face is that Beloved thinks she has lost?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why do you think Sixo yells out "Seven-O, Seven-O"?

2. What does Paul D and Paid Stamp's gallow humor signify?

3. Why do you think Halle smears butter over his face?

4. In chapter twenty-two what do you think Beloved's story is about?

5. What do the diamonds signify in the water?

6. Why do Sethe and Denver need Beloved to be theirs?

7. Why does Morrison use stream of consciousness in this chapter to express Sethe's thoughts?

8. Why does Stamp Paid show Paul D the article about Sethe?

9. What do you think the single, unbroken paragraph in chapter twenty signifies?

10. Do you think a white family would take in a white man as a black family would take in a black man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Think about Paul D's time in prison in Georgia. What do you think conditions were like? How would you have coped in similar conditions?

Essay Topic 2

In this novel, Morrison uses the stream of consciousness technique twice, once with Sethe and in the next chapter with Denver.

1) How do you think stream of consciousness works to express a character's thoughts?

2) Why do you think Morrison uses stream of consciousness with these two characters?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the connotations of the word "nigger"?

1) What is its original meaning and what has it come to mean?

2) Why is it considered so wrong to use it now?

3) Do you think the word has become too powerful?

(see the answer keys)

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