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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where and when is "The World and The Jug" published?
(a) New Leader, 1963 and 1964.
(b) Paris Review, 1966.
(c) Mississippian, 1967 and 1968.
(d) New York Times, 1965.

2. Where does Ellison give the public address "Hidden Name and Complex Fate?"
(a) National Association of the Advancement of Colored People.
(b) Rutgers University Convocation on Race and Entitlement.
(c) Library of Congress in 1964.
(d) nternational Peace Conference in Geneva, New York.

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

4. Who is Irving Howe?
(a) Negro professor from Mississippi University.
(b) Pseudonym for Richard Wright.
(c) Hispanic Indian man who met Ellison in a bar.
(d) White liberal writer from New York City.

5. What is the "Hidden Name" referred to in the title of Ellison's speech?
(a) Ellison's middle name, Waldo.
(b) The names given to Negro people by their slave owners.
(c) Ellison's father's name, George Washington Ellison.
(d) Ernest Hemingway.

6. What three ways do Negroes in Wright's childhood survive?
(a) Accept, repress or fight.
(b) Enjoy, relax, or savor.
(c) Vote, campaign, or legislate.
(d) Embrace, celebrate, or be grateful.

7. What writers does Ellison wish had been included in the "Primer for White Folks"?
(a) Young unknown writers.
(b) Major, widely-read American authors.
(c) More Negro writers.
(d) Hispanic authors.

8. As a child what do Ellison and his boyhood friends believe they are to do?
(a) Negros could never equal the lives of white Americans.
(b) Negros had no chance of doing anything interesting in life.
(c) Be whoever they would and could be.
(d) They were doomed to hard manual labor and suffering.

9. What assumption does Ellison start with when writing about Negro persons?
(a) Only he, as a Negro writer, can find truth and beauty in their lives.
(b) Men with black skins are unquestionably human.
(c) His task as a writer is to save them from the white world.
(d) They are his responsibility to explain.

10. How does Ellison start writing?
(a) Ellison is commissioned by the New York City Opera to write a libretto.
(b) Ellison fails to get into the jazz band he wants so he writes about it.
(c) Richard Wright asks him to review a novel for Wright's magazine.
(d) His mother asks him to write the story of her life.

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

12. What folk tradition does Ellison believe the black face figure grows out of?
(a) Europe.
(b) America.
(c) West Indies.
(d) Africa.

13. What does Ellison suggest as a subtitle for "Primer for White Folks?"
(a) How-to book for Bigots and Innocents.
(b) Short Course on the American Negro for Those Who "Beat That Boy".
(c) Method for finding Peace and Harmony among the Races.
(d) Comprehensive Study of the Unruly Seas of Race.

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

15. According to Ellison what does the term "the grays" mean?
(a) Negro term for nightfall.
(b) Slang word for feeling bored.
(c) American melting pot.
(d) Negro term for white people.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the phrase "beating that boy" mean?

2. What specific folk art form does "Black Boy" reflect?

3. What is the occasion of Ellison's speech "Brave Words on a Startling Occasion?"

4. What type of jug does Ellison say Howe imagines Negro people to be in?

5. Why does Ellison choose to analyze Ernest Hemingway?

(see the answer keys)

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