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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 subject does the narrator teach?

2. What song does the narrator remember his mother singing?

3. How much money does the narrator give Sonny’s old acquaintance?

4. Which of the following does the narrator note reacts most favorably to Sonny’s arrival?

5. In what branch of the military had the narrator served?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

8. For what is Sonny arrested?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the overall attitude of the story towards musical performance? How does that attitude emerge from the text?

Essay Topic 2

Sources attest to the presence of “Sonny’s Blues” on must-read lists. Assuming that such status reflects popularity, what accounts for the popularity of the short story? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

“Sonny’s Blues” was originally published in 1957. Comments about it are many and easily found. What are the dominant trends among those comments? That is, what comments seem to be made about “Sonny’s Blues” most often, by what kinds of people, and in what situations?

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