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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The author states in the novel's Foreword, "There can't be anyone, I am sure, who doesn't know what it feels like to be" what "momentarily or for sustained periods of time"?

2. In the story of Jane from Part I, Jane’s family lives in a house that is what colors?

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

4. What does Jane’s father do when Jane asks him to play in the story from Part I?

5. The girl who is described as the narrator’s “next-door friend who lives above her father’s café” in Part I is named Rosemary what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the primary setting for the novel? How is the author connected to this setting?

2. What commotion begins when Rosemary “tattles” on Claudia, Frieda, and Pecola for “being nasty” in “Autumn”?

3. What do Claudia and Frieda receive at the beginning of the school year in “Autumn”? What conversation consumes “the grownups” in the opening of this chapter?

4. Describe the narrative style of the novel. Who narrates the opening passages before “Autumn”?

5. How did author Toni Morrison perceive the Civil Rights Movement’s slogan “Black is Beautiful”? How is this seen in the novel?

6. What information is related to the reader in the brief italicized preface before “Autumn”?

7. How is the MacTeer home described in “Autumn”? How are the relationships between the children and the adults characterized?

8. For what reason does the Breedlove family stay in the apartment, according to the narrator in “Here is the House…”?

9. How are Claudia’s feelings about Shirley Temple and about baby dolls illustrated in “Autumn”?

10. According to some critics, the three versions of the reader presented on the first page of The Bluest Eye represent three lifestyles presented in the novel. What does the first version represent?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss ways in which the Breedloves’ apartment in “This is the House…” represents the character of Pecola Breedlove in the novel. What characteristics does Pecola share with the house? How are both the house and Pecola perceived by others in the town?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the theme of “the other” in The Bluest Eye. How is Pecola a metaphorical representation of “the other”? How is her outsider status important to the novel’s narrator? Why do Frieda and Claudia attempt to make Pecola feel less like an outsider?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of “ugliness” in the novel. As opposed to “beauty,” how is ugliness defined by the narrator? What do you view “ugliness” as? How is ugliness portrayed by the Breedlove family?

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