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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The main conflict of Ellison's original story revolves around
(a) national poverty
(b) racial tension
(c) problems associated with war
(d) imperialism

2. In chapter 9, the narrator walks a short distance with another man. What is the man doing besides singing?
(a) leading a dog
(b) Carrying blueprints
(c) eating
(d) carrying a suitcase

3. What is Trueblood's explanation of the rape of his daughter?
(a) His wife forced him into it.
(b) His daughter dliberately seduced him.
(c) He acted in a dream and didn't know what he was doing.
(d) He confused his wife with his daughter because they were all in the same bed.

4. How does the narrator get past the drunken vet in the road?
(a) He tells him he has General Pershing in the car.
(b) He pretends he is about to run over the vet.
(c) He claims to be someone of importance.
(d) He pays the vet a bribe.

5. How is the narrator's invisibility related to his residence?
(a) The whites allow him to stay there because they consider him unimportant.
(b) He lives in a building for whites and uses their electricity because they cannot conceive of his presence.
(c) The white residents simply ignore him.
(d) He is able to come and go without being noticed.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to the vet, who controls "things"?

2. What makes the narrator homesick when he first gets to New York?

3. Where does Bledsoe tell the narrator to go?

4. What does the narrator tell Mr. Emerson that he wants to do with his future?

5. What does the doctor mean when he says they "picked poor robin clean"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Ellison mean when he says that for African Americans, all wars are "wars within wars."

2. What literary device is used in Chapter 4?

3. How has the narrator ended up in the factory hospital? How is he being treated once he gets there?

4. Of what "irresponsibility" are sleepwalkers and dreamers accused?

5. Why does the trip to the Trueblood house make the narrator feel uncomfortable?

6. Describe Dr. Bledsoe.

7. Why does the drug store have the pork chop and grits special?

8. What is the objective of Rev. Barbee's sermon?

9. What surprises the narrator upon his arrival in Harlem?

10. Why is Harlem a particularly appropriate setting for the novel?

(see the answer keys)

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