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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 does Mr. Dalton's company own?

2. What is the on-going plan Bigger and his friends discuss that morning?

3. What does Bigger decide to do with Mary's body next?

4. What doe Bigger and Jack think being "Red" is?

5. When the young couple treats him as an equal how does if make Bigger feel?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Bigger feel about his family?

2. What does it mean about Bigger "Feeling his blackness," even more after Mary Dalton and Jan Erlone's attempts at being friendly?

3. Describe Bigger's home.

4. What was the story Bigger planned to tell when he returned in the morning?

5. Why do the Dalton's make Bigger feel so uncomfortable?

6. Why did Bigger help Mary to her room instead of waking her parents and letting them know her drunken condition?

7. Why does Bigger seem to take an instant dislike to Mary Dalton?

8. After all the gory details of the way he disposed of Mary's body, how was Bigger reacting?

9. Why does Bigger need to get a job?

10. Why did Bigger want to kill the cat?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the very end of the story Max is upset when Bigger comes to the conclusion that it must have been good that he killed. In an essay explain Bigger's reasoning and how he came to that conclusion. Also explain what Max is trying to make Bigger understand after he comes to this conclusion. Why might the two men have different views on this subject?

Essay Topic 2

Fear, Flight and Fate Themes:

Write an essay about the way each of these themes were demonstrated in the story. Did any of them intertwine? If so, when/how?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay on the way the author, Richard Wright wrote this story, demonstrates both sides of the "nature versus nurture" theory. This is particularly strong when Max testifies to the court about Bigger's life. In the essay describe various parts of the story and how they reinforce both aspects of the theory.

(see the answer keys)

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