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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. What character working in the hospital basement scares Richard?

2. What is the name of Richard's foreman?

3. Who does Richard find is trying to oust him from his position at the Federal Negro Theater?

4. What does Richard say the dogs do silently when they regain consciousness?

5. Where does Richard work with restless boys?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Richard want to read H.L Mencken?

2. Why do the black Communists mock Richard?

3. What does Richard realize as he stands in line at the relief station?

4. Why do Richard's fellow comrades begins to shun him?

5. How does Richard borrow books from the white library?

6. How do Richard's white co-workers in the cafe shock him?

7. Why does Mrs. Moss end up disgusting Richard?

8. Why don't Southern people like it when blacks move to Northern cities?

9. How do Richard's co-workers react when he tells them he is moving North?

10. Why does Shorty amuse Richard?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Pick a character from the novel and discuss his/her goals and motives. Does he/she achieve his/her motive? Does he/she share similar goals and motives with other characters? Do his/her goals clash with other characters? How do the characters' goals and motives affect their interactions with each other?

Essay Topic 2

Examine the differences between how Wright represents white characters and how he represents black characters.

1) In what way are Wright's representations of white characters unsympathetic? Are his representations too unsympathetic?

2) In what way does Wright suggest that the way a white person treats a black person directly influences some of the black people's illegal behavior? Is this an accurate representation?

Essay Topic 3

Examine the differences between the Jim Crow system and slavery.

1) What were the differences between the Jim Crow system and slavery?

2) In what way does Wright present the Jim Crow system as hypocritical and no better than slavery?

(see the answer keys)

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