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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 9 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What metal does the narrator associate with Sonny?

2. What subject does the narrator teach?

3. How many years older than Sonny is the narrator?

4. To which of the following does the narrator compare a student?

5. Which of the following does the narrator note having thrown from rooftops?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the narrator note having taken up residence where he did?

2. Why does the narrator posit his students are full of rage?

3. What does the narrator note would happen on Sunday evenings with his parents when someone turned on a light?

4. Why does the narrator note being glad of Isabel’s presence when he brings Sonny home?

5. What outcome does Sonny’s old acquaintance foresee for him?

6. Why does the narrator note that Sonny and his father had not gotten along?

7. What are the narrator’s earliest memories of Sonny?

8. For what is Sonny arrested?

9. Why had the narrator not known he had an uncle?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Assuming that “Sonny’s Blues” should be standard reading for a given class and level, what class and what level? Why that class and why that level? What in the text suggests as much, and how does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Overall, what is the most important theme of “Sonny’s Blues”? What in the text indicates as much? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

How reliable is the narrator of the short story? What in the text indicates that reliability, and how does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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