View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The narrator says in Part II, “So when I think of autumn, I think of somebody with hands who does not want” what?
(a) “Me to die.”
(b) “My money.”
(c) “My help.”
(d) “My advice.”

2. Mrs. MacTeer exclaims during her diatribe in Part II, “I got about as much business with another mouth to feed as a cat has with” what?
(a) “A wheelbarrow.”
(b) “A wristwatch.”
(c) “A top hat.”
(d) “Side pockets.”

3. The author describes "seeing oneself preserved in the amber of" what, in the novel's Foreword?
(a) “Time.”
(b) “Disqualifying metaphors.”
(c) “Collective memory.”
(d) “Justice.”

4. With whom had Mr. Henry been living before taking a room from the MacTeer family?
(a) Miss Poland.
(b) Miss Delia Jones.
(c) Miss Erkmeister.
(d) Miss Marie.

5. The narrator in Part I claims that “one must take refuge in” what?
(a) “How.”
(b) “When.”
(c) “What.”
(d) “Why.”

6. What does Pecola pray for every night, according to the narrator in Part II?
(a) Food to eat.
(b) A new dress.
(c) A boyfriend.
(d) Blue eyes.

7. What does Jane’s father do when Jane asks him to play in the story from Part I?
(a) He says he is too busy.
(b) He gets mad.
(c) He cries.
(d) He smiles.

8. How old is Sammy when he lives by the pizza parlor in the narrator’s description from Part II?
(a) 7.
(b) 11.
(c) 6.
(d) 14.

9. Who is described as “still trotting up and down Sixteenth Street talking to herself” in Part II?
(a) Baby Jenny.
(b) Miss Bertha.
(c) Auntie Julia.
(d) Miss Forrester.

10. What does Pecola’s mother demand that Pecola’s father get out of bed and go get for her in their argument in Part II?
(a) Coal.
(b) Flour.
(c) Eggs.
(d) Milk.

11. What does Toni Morrison refer to as the “most delicate member of society” in the book’s Foreword?
(a) A child.
(b) An old man.
(c) An old woman.
(d) A new bride.

12. What is Mr. Henry’s last name?
(a) Washington.
(b) Yacobowski.
(c) Whitcomb.
(d) Dunion.

13. According to Toni Morrison in the book’s Foreword, “The extremity of Pecola's case stemmed largely from" what?
(a) “The poorest of luck.”
(b) “A crippled and crippling family.”
(c) “A series of bad choices.”
(d) “Societal pressures.”

14. Where is the abandoned store that is described in Part II as “on the southeast corner of Broadway and Thirty-fifth Street”?
(a) Cleveland, Ohio.
(b) Columbus, Ohio.
(c) Lorain, Ohio.
(d) Chicago, Illinois.

15. In speaking of Pecola’s father in Part I, the narrator says, “Our innocence and faith were no more productive than his” what?
(a) “Immoral thinking.”
(b) “Criminal behavior.”
(c) “Evil and sadness.”
(d) “Lust or despair.”

Short Answer Questions

1. The author states in the book’s Foreword that in constructing the narrative she did not want to do what to "the characters who trashed Pecola and contributed to her collapse"?

2. What do the narrator and her sister receive at the start of the school year in Part II?

3. The author writes in the novel's Foreword that when she began writing The Bluest Eye, she was interested in the "far more tragic and disabling consequences of accepting rejection as" what?

4. The author states in the Foreword that her concept of breaking the narrative of the novel into parts "didn't work" because many readers "remain touched but not" what?

5. In the third narrative of the Jane story in Part I, what has been taken away?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 560 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample