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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 offers help if Mattie or Molly need anything, now that they've moved into the rooming house?

2. What did Mattie's man say was on her?

3. What spiritual entity is mentioned in the Juba, as noted in the play's stage direction?

4. Why does Seth say jokingly that he married Bertha?

5. What is Bynum's reaction when Seth suggests a Juba?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Seth like Herald Loomis?

2. What does Bynum describe his father doing that made a fuss?

3. How does Loomis act when he first enters in Act 2, Scene 2?

4. What does Seth say to Loomis, when Loomis first enters in Act 2, Scene 2?

5. How does Loomis describe his wife to Selig?

6. Describe what Seth sees out the window at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 1. What is Seth's reaction to it?

7. What reason does Mattie give Loomis for hoping Loomis finds his wife?

8. How did Loomis come to be reunited with his daughter but separated from his wife?

9. What is Jeremy's initial reaction to Molly Cunningham?

10. What is Molly's reaction to the death of Mattie's two babies?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss religion in the play.

1) What is the significance of the washing in blood that appears both in Bynum's vision and in the end of the play? What religious significance does it have?

2) Compare the Christian religion of the characters to Bynum's spiritualism. What parallels do they have? How are they different? Where does each arise from?

3) Why does Loomis rail against religion? What significance is there to the fact that Martha followed her church away from Loomis?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the play, there are forces that bind people and forces that tear people apart. Discuss these forces.

1) What types of things bind people to each other and to places and lives in the play? Are these things good or bad, or are some good and some bad? How do negative binding forces (like the chains of slavery) affect the other things that bind people together or to elements of their lives?

2) What types of things tear people apart in the play? Are these things good or bad, or are some good and some bad? What role might tearing apart have in building identity?

Essay Topic 3

Trauma is the enduring effects of an injury, such as slavery, which leaves a generations-long mark on African-Americans. Discuss trauma in the play.

1) How has Herald Loomis' trauma from being enslaved affected him and his life? Do any of the other characters affected a similar trauma?

2) How do the cultural repercussions of slavery affect Jeremy?

3) How do the cultural repercussions of slavery affect the women in the play and their relationships with men?

4) How is trauma from Herald Loomis' experience passed down to Zonia?

(see the answer keys)

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