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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 1, The Seer and the Seen, Section 4.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Ellison believe writing is?
(a) A way to criticize others.
(b) Channeling of higher beings.
(c) Ethical instrument.
(d) Mindless activity.

2. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Ernest Hemingway?
(a) Hemingway was not American.
(b) Hemingway ignored the dramatic and symbolic possibilities a Negro character would present.
(c) Hemingway sold more books than any other American author.
(d) Hemingway grew up in Oklahoma City also.

3. What are the three themes of "Shadow and Act" according to the Introduction?
(a) Classical Dance, Country Music and Folk Art.
(b) Racism, Poverty and Obstruction of Justice.
(c) Literature, Jazz/Blues and the relationship between Negro America and American culture.
(d) White people, Black people, and Native Americans.

4. Hemingway carries on Twain's technical discoveries in writing but loses what?
(a) Twain's political and social construct.
(b) Twain's understanding that technique is to be used in the service of truth.
(c) Twain's focus on American subjects.
(d) Twain's humor and light approach to storytelling.

5. What musician does Ellison see as the true "trickster" archetype?
(a) Mahalia Jackson.
(b) Louis Armstrong.
(c) Charlie Parker.
(d) Jack Benny.

Short Answer Questions

1. Ellison says Hemingway sought technical perfection rather than what?

2. How old is Crane when he wrote his masterpiece "The Red Badge of Courage?"

3. In the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" what does Ellison say black face allows white America to do?

4. What does Mark Twain do with the character of Jim that breaks through the black face minstrel tradition?

5. What folk tradition does Ellison believe the black face figure grows out of?

(see the answer key)

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