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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. The husband of the woman who runs the boarding house is from where in Chapter 5?
(a) Cuba.
(b) Mexico.
(c) Ecuador.
(d) Haiti.

2. How many students does the narrator say are at the university in Chapter 4?
(a) 1,200-1,500.
(b) 200-250.
(c) 600-800.
(d) 300-400.

3. The narrator says in Chapter 4, “I have since learned that this ability to laugh heartily is, in part, the salvation of the American Negro; it does much to keep him from going the way of the” what?
(a) “White man.”
(b) “Devil.”
(c) “Animals.”
(d) “Indian.”

4. In Chapter 5, the narrator compares the black man and his fight to what bearing the “fury of the storm”?
(a) “The redwood tree.”
(b) “The bristlecone pine tree.”
(c) “The willow tree.”
(d) “The cedar tree.”

5. Within how much time is the narrator able to speak Spanish like a native after working at the factory in Chapter 5?
(a) 2 years.
(b) 9 moths.
(c) 1 year.
(d) 6 months.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the narrator describe growing along the edge of the fence by the vegetable garden in Chapter 1?

2. The narrator states in the beginning of Chapter 4 that the farther he got below __________, the more disappointed he became with the appearance of the country?

3. The landlord of the boarding house in Chapter 5 makes approximately how many cigars per day?

4. Where does the narrator move with his mother in Chapter 1?

5. Whose schoolwork did the narrator largely complete for him, as described in Chapter 2?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the motif of music apply in the novel? What is the narrator’s relationship to music?

2. How is the first Pullman car porter described by the narrator? Where does the narrator meet him?

3. How is segregation addressed when the narrator eats his first meal in Atlanta in Chapter 4?

4. What popular dance does the narrator describe in Chapter 5? When did the dance develop?

5. Where does the narrator hide his money at the rooming house in Chapter 4? Where does he go after this?

6. To whom were African American narratives during the Reconstruction Era generally addressed? Why?

7. Who is the narrator’s guide when he first arrives in Atlanta in Chapter 4? What are the narrator’s impressions of the city?

8. What is early education like for the narrator? When does he enter public school and how is this setting described?

9. What elements does the novel share with the Realist Movement in literary style?

10. What advice is the narrator given after his money is stolen in Chapter 4? Who helps him out?

(see the answer keys)

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