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Name: _________________________ | Period: ___________________ |
This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. How much money per week does the narrator earn as the “reader” at the cigar factory in Chapter 5?
2. On what day of the week does the narrator’s mother play the piano in Chapter 1?
3. The narrator’s landlady tells him that the average price for a music teacher within the African American community is how much in Chapter 5?
4. The narrator states in Chapter 2 that “a true artist can no more play upon the piano or violin without putting his whole body in accord with the emotions he is striving to express than a swallow can” do what?
5. According to the narrator in Chapter 2, the two immediate results of his “forced loneliness” were finding company in books and greater pleasure in what?
Short Essay Questions
1. In what ways does the narrator show blindness and naiveté regarding his race?
2. How does the theme of identity apply to the novel? How does it apply to the narrator?
3. Where does the narrator begin working in Jacksonville in Chapter 5?
4. What does the narrator discover when he encounters the porter at a dance in Chapter 5?
5. What advice is the narrator given after his money is stolen in Chapter 4? Who helps him out?
6. How does dramatic irony relate to The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man?
7. How is segregation addressed when the narrator eats his first meal in Atlanta in Chapter 4?
8. How is the period in which the book is set described by the author? What was life like for African Americans?
9. What elements does the novel share with the Realist Movement in literary style?
10. Where does the narrator hide his money at the rooming house in Chapter 4? Where does he go after this?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Discuss the underlying racism depicted in the narrator’s classifications of African Americans in Chapter 5. In what ways does this delineation break down to personal prejudice? Do you agree or disagree with the assertions of the narrator? Why?
Essay Topic 2
Discuss the Civil War, the Reconstruction Era of the United States, and the settings of Georgia and Connecticut during this time period. Where in Georgia does the narrator live with his mother? How does he describe his home and the people in his childhood community? What details does he describe of his father?
Essay Topic 3
Discuss the imagery and symbolism used by the narrator in describing Paris and London in Chapter 9. How does he compare these cities? What are examples of personification, simile, and metaphor in his descriptions? How does this imagery affect the tone of this chapter?
This section contains 913 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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