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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. Why does the narrator decide against using Emma in his plans?

2. What horrifying sight does the narrator see as he flees the riot?

3. How does the audience react to the narrator's speech?

4. What is in the narrator's briefcase?

5. What object does Mary own that the narrator finds offensive?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is the narrator's work on the "woman question" cut short?

2. What strikes the narrator as the profound truth about the riot?

3. Explain why the "woman question" is typical of the Brotherhood's approach to issues.

4. Why do Dupre and his men choose a particular building to burn?

5. Brother Jack refers to Clifton as Brutus? How does the metaphor fit the situation?

6. To what does Brother Tarp attribute the warning letter?

7. What puzzling irony does the narrator tell us about the human race?

8. Why does Jack become angry with the man who asks the narrator to sing a "spiritual"?

9. What epiphany has the narrator experienced regarding his race?

10. How does the narrator really feel about the gift of the chain from Brother Tarp?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain the symbolism of the following items: the figurine bank, the dark glasses, the briefcase, the dancing dolls, the piece of chain.

Essay Topic 2

Someone has said that heresy is simply truth carried to an extreme. Explain, therefore, how either diversity or unity could be carried to an extreme, misused, and thus become heretical.

Essay Topic 3

The African American people--at whatever geographic location they are found in the novel--seem to have little hope of a future that is equal to the whites in terms of wealth, status, education, or upward mobility. Whether they are in the north or the south, the forces that impede progress have much in common. For example, Norton requires a barely "post-slavery" recipient, that is, someone who needs the help he imagines he is giving, in order for his endeavors to have any meaning. Similarly, numerous philosophers have suggested that we need the poor and downtrodden among us in order to have a subject upon which to practice charity. Discuss several different ways in which this attitude is expressed in the novel. Show what this approach of using a particular group target upon which to practice an ideology accomplishes both for the subject group and for the "charitable" or practicing entity.

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This section contains 1,101 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample