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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is Stanley Edgar Hyman?
(a) The prominent Negro intellectual who wrote "Santa Claus is Black."
(b) A lyricist and comedian in the 1930's.
(c) A scholar who wrote on the relationship between Negro literature and folklore.
(d) Ellison's uncle who has a good sense of humor.

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

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

4. How does Ellison describe his relationship with Howe?
(a) Comrades in arms.
(b) Bitterly opposed enemies.
(c) Alienation and scorn.
(d) Antagonistic cooperation.

5. Where and when is the essay "Change the Joke and Slip the Yoke" published?
(a) New Yorker Magazine, Summer, 1959.
(b) Partisan Review, Spring 1958.
(c) Yale Literary Review, Winter, 1960.
(d) Life Magazine, Summer, 1958.

6. What Bible myth is referred to in "The World and the Jug?"
(a) Baby Moses and the Pharaoh's daughter.
(b) Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
(c) Garden of Eden.
(d) Noah, Ham, Shem and Japheth.

7. What does Ellison say the greatest difficulty for the Negro writer is?
(a) Capture the Negro speech idiom and put it down on paper.
(b) Reveal what he truly feels rather than serving up what Negroes are supposed to feel.
(c) Find a subject worthy of his time and effort.
(d) Get someone to publish him because most of the publishers were white.

8. What does Ellison say good fiction is made of?
(a) Tricks of the trade.
(b) Eternal truth.
(c) What is real.
(d) Fun.

9. What does Falkner understand about racial social code of the South?
(a) Destructive to both Negro and white parts of society.
(b) It is fragile and illusionary.
(c) It will never change.
(d) Here today, gone tomorrow.

10. Where is Richard Wright born?
(a) On a Mississippi plantation.
(b) In the New York City Negro hospital
(c) In a log cabin located in the heart of Nebraska.
(d) On a train as it traveled from Georgia to Maine.

11. Who is Henry Bowman Otto Davis?
(a) Editor of the first magazine which published Ellison.
(b) Father of Ellison's grade school nemesis, Horatio Davis.
(c) Little white boy known as Hoolie befriended by the young Ellison.
(d) Author of "Radios and Communication, a guide."

12. Where does Ellison grow up?
(a) Oklahoma City.
(b) Dallas.
(c) New Orleans.
(d) New York City.

13. Where might Crane have gotten information about the Civil War?
(a) Intensive scholarly research.
(b) His own experience.
(c) Manuscripts and letters.
(d) His brother.

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

15. Why does Ellison chose not to emphasize the details of racial hardship in his life?
(a) Too painful for him to speak about.
(b) To avoid boring the audience.
(c) It is a white audience and he fears they will be uncomfortable.
(d) It is a Negro audience and they already know his story.

Short Answer Questions

1. Hemingway carries on Twain's technical discoveries in writing but loses what?

2. What does Ralph Ellison's father hope that Ralph will grow up to be?

3. What is Ellison's original choice of career?

4. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Mark Twain?

5. As a child what do Ellison and his boyhood friends believe they are to do?

(see the answer keys)

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