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

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

3. What does Ralph Ellison's father hope that Ralph will grow up to be?
(a) Jazz musician.
(b) Poet.
(c) Police officer.
(d) College professor.

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

5. How does Ellison describe his boyhood experience in Oklahoma?
(a) Very controlled and regimented experience.
(b) Romantic aspirations in the spirit of frontier adventurousness.
(c) Poverty stricken existence with little enjoyment.
(d) Series of mind numbing and violent episodes.

Short Answer Questions

1. As a child what is Wright unable to distinguish between?

2. What writers does Ellison wish had been included in the "Primer for White Folks"?

3. What are the three major section of the "Primer for White Folks?"

4. For Ellison a primary difference between Twain and Hemingway is what?

5. Where does Ellison say civil wars are fought?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Ellison choose to write about Faulkner?

2. Ellison originally wanted to be a musician. What changed for him?

3. What does Ellison admire most about "The Primer for White Folks?"

4. What is the "hidden name" Ellison is referring in the title of his speech to the Library of Congress in 1064?

5. How did a library for Negro persons emerge in Oklahoma City?

6. What does the Negro say when white America holds up twentieth century fiction and say "this is the American reality?"

7. What is Ellison's basic quarrel with Hyman?

8. As a child Ellison imagined himself as a "Renaissance man." What does that mean?

9. Why does Ellison consider Stephen Crane to be such a great artist?

10. What were the two greatest influences upon Crane's life, in Ellison's estimation?

(see the answer keys)

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