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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. Who is the author of Native Son?
(a) Harriet Beecher Stowe.
(b) James Baldwin.
(c) Richard Wright.
(d) Langston Hughes.

2. What are protest novels?
(a) Reality connecting nowhere with fantasy.
(b) Fantasies connecting nowhere to reality.
(c) Racism connecting nowhere to social policy.
(d) Socialism connecting nowhere to racism.

3. How does Baldwin describe literature on the subject of the Negro in America when it is written by Blacks?
(a) Protest Literature.
(b) Problem Literature.
(c) Change Literature.
(d) Social Literature.

4. Which of the following artists was mentioned in the Harlem Ghetto chapter as having a column in the People's Voice?
(a) Dorothy Dandridge.
(b) Lena Horne.
(c) Joe Adams.
(d) Harry Belafonte.

5. Who had the money to pay for the Melodeers' accommodations in Atlanta?
(a) Louis Burner.
(b) Clarance Warde.
(c) Henry Wallace.
(d) Mrs. Brandon Price.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why is the language and dialect in the film Carmen Jones considered an insult on black people?

2. What newspaper rivaled the Amsterdam Star-News in the 1940s?

3. According to Baldwin, both the Negro and the Jew are characterized as:

4. According to Baldwin, what characteristic does Dorothy Dandridge have that Pearl Bailey lacks?

5. What two big name magazines, popular in the African American community in the 1940s, are mentioned in the chapter entitled The Harlem Ghetto?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the language and dialect in the film Carmen Jones.

2. What is the significance of having both the lead characters in the film Carmen Jones cast by light-complected Negroes?

3. Why is the American Negro envious of the French African?

4. Why does Baldwin conclude that the religion of the villagers is Catholicism?

5. How does Baldwin describe the social climate that existed when Richard Wright was writing Native Son?

6. Describe the Swiss village that Baldwin visits in the essay Stranger in the Village.

7. What is the significance of having the evil and immoral characters played by very dark complected Negroes in the film Carmen Jones?

8. According to Baldwin, how does an individual become an American? And what does this mean for African Americans?

9. Why do you think Baldwin experiences a sense of melancholy after his father's death?

10. How does Baldwin escape prosecution in Paris?

(see the answer keys)

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