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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. What character wrote the book Mick, Please: The Black Irish Journey from Ghetto to Gaelic?

2. What is the name of Marpessa's younger brother?

3. Who is the student that volunteered to help the narrator castrate a calf on Career Day?

4. Where is the long-lost city of Dollersheim located?

5. What word from Chapter 18 refers to a tomblike monument to someone buried elsewhere?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does the narrator describe his father taking him in order to show him that racism still exists?

2. What is burned at the ending of Career Day at Chaff Middle School? Why?

3. Why do the neighborhood children gather in the narrator's yard in Chapter 15?

4. What are the three lost cities that the narrator dictates to be sister cities to Dickens?

5. How does the narrator respond to Hominy's suggestions for new class systems in Dickens in Chapter 18?

6. What does the narrator demonstrate on Career Day at the Chaff Middle School?

7. Who are the three famous living African Americans that attend the meeting in Chapter 19? How are their identities revealed?

8. What does the apple tree symbolize in Chapter 18?

9. What emotional disorder does the narrator tell the court he likely has?

10. Why does the narrator say he was reluctant to segregate the hospital in Chapter 20?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the symbolism and imagery connected to the narrator's two-acre farm in Dickens. What does the narrator grow on the farm? How are the procedures of running the farm related to life and race relations in the story?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss the setting of Dickens, California. Where is the long-lost City of Dickens located? Why was the city "deleted"? Where are the boundaries of the city and what is its proximity to other locations described in the greater Los Angeles area?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of racism in The Sellout. How does the author develop this theme through setting and characters? How is the theme related to symbolism and imagery in the novel? What statements do you think the author is making about racism? Why?

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