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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is the occasion of Ellison's speech "Brave Words on a Startling Occasion?"
(a) Acceptance of the American National Book Award in 1953.
(b) Induction into the American Negro Writer's Hall of Fame.
(c) Address to the Harvard University graduating class of 1950.
(d) Eldest son's wedding.

2. For Ellison a primary difference between Twain and Hemingway is what?
(a) Twain was trained in writing and Hemingway was not.
(b) Twain was creative and Hemingway factual.
(c) Twain was an abolitionist and Hemingway was a prohibitionists.
(d) Hemingway writes about his own personal myth and Twain writes about the national myth.

3. What is the relationship between Ellison and Stanley Hyman?
(a) Professors competing over the same university job.
(b) Cousins who grew up together in Oklahoma.
(c) Friends and intellectual sparing partners.
(d) Writers who abhor each other's work.

4. That Ellison's first novel might win a prestigious award makes him think what?
(a) He is chosen only because he is Negro.
(b) The committee has made a huge mistake.
(c) He is a brilliant writer.
(d) There is a crisis in the American novel.

5. What does Ellison believe is the true "Negro experience?"
(a) A codified, suffocating existence which cannot be understood by others.
(b) There isn't one. Negro persons live diverse and varied lives.
(c) The opposite of the "white experience."
(d) A life of unremitting suffering and pain.

6. What specific folk art form does "Black Boy" reflect?
(a) African ethnic mask making.
(b) Folk sculpture.
(c) Modern dance.
(d) The blues.

7. What book does Hemingway believe all modern American fiction sprang from?
(a) Moby Dick.
(b) The Red Badge of Courage.
(c) The Bible.
(d) Huckleberry Finn.

8. As a child what is Wright unable to distinguish between?
(a) When to be quiet and when to speak.
(b) Right and Wrong.
(c) Day and night.
(d) His fair-skinned grandmother and the white women of the town.

9. Who is Ellison named after?
(a) Ralph Winston Ellison.
(b) Ralph Kramden.
(c) Ralph Waldo Emerson.
(d) Ralph Roosevelt Ellison.

10. What does Ellison say the "Negro problem" actually is?
(a) An illusion where there is only chaos.
(b) A guilt problem charged with pain.
(c) Non-existent.
(d) A white problem.

11. What is minstrel show black face?
(a) Dark themed short skits and plays in vaudeville.
(b) White performers painting their faces black and acting in a pseudo-Negro nonsensical way.
(c) Southern music and dance.
(d) Black actors acting in minstrel shows that are comic and touching.

12. Who is Stanley Hyman's favorite archetypal figure?
(a) Orphaned prince.
(b) Messiah.
(c) Trickster.
(d) King.

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

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

15. In the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" what does Ellison say black face allows white America to do?
(a) See the Negro story from a different perspective.
(b) Pour out its hatred and fear in a theatrical form.
(c) Laugh and forget about its troubles and woes.
(d) Avoid looking at the shallowness of white American culture.

Short Answer Questions

1. Where does Ellison say civil wars are fought?

2. Who is the editor of "The Primer for White Folks?"

3. Why does Ellison choose to analyze William Falkner?

4. What three ways do Negroes in Wright's childhood survive?

5. Other white cultures have black face type entertainment, but what is different about American black face?

(see the answer keys)

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