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Native Son

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Native Son

Richard Wright

Quiz

1. Why does Bigger attack Gus when they meet up to rob Blum's delicatessen?

(A) Gus does not want to rob Blum's delicatessen anymore

(B) Gus insults Bigger

(D) Gus has forgotten to bring his gun

2. Why does Bigger hate his family?

(A) They refuse to work and he has to support them

(B) They threaten to turn him in to the police

(D) They are miserable and he is unable to help them

3. Who hires Bigger as a chauffeur?

(A) Mr. Dalton

(B) Buckley

(D) Jan Erlone

4. Why does Bigger kill Mary?

(A) She attacks him

(B) He is terrified of being found alone in her bedroom with her

(D) He wants to collect ransom from her parents

5. Who is Mr. Dalton?

(A) The State's Attorney

(B) A politician

(D) A real estate baron

6. Why does Bigger kill Bessie?

(A) He knows that her complaining and her alcoholism will slow him down in his flight from the police

(B) He does not want her to turn him in to the police for raping her

(D) She threatens to turn him in for killing Mary

7. Why do Mary's parents disapprove of her relationship with Jan?

(A) Jan does not come from a wealthy background

(B) Jan gets Mary drunk too often

(D) Jan believes in racial equality

8. Who is Britten?

(A) A policeman

(B) A private investigator

(D) Mary's uncle

9. From what handicap does Mrs. Dalton suffer?

(A) Blindness

(B) Paralysis

(D) Muteness

10. Which of the following describes Max?

(A) He is an attorney for the Labor Defenders

(B) He is Jewish

(D) All of the above

11. Who is Buckley?

(A) A policeman

(B) The judge who presides over Bigger's trial

(D) The State's Attorney

12. How does Bigger react to Mary's unreserved behavior toward him?

(A) He is angry

(B) He is afraid

(D) All of the above

13. Why is Bigger alone with Mary in her bedroom the night he kills her?

(A) He has to help her to her bedroom, as she is too drunk to get up the stairs herself

(B) He wants to get her drunk so he will not have to take her to the station in the morning

(D) She wants him to help her pack for her trip to Detroit in the morning

14. Why does Buckley rush Bigger's trial?

(A) Bigger has already confessed to his crimes, so the trial is irrelevant at this point

(B) He is afraid a riot will break out if he does not conclude the trial quickly

(D) The trial will give him a political advantage in his upcoming campaign for reelection

15. How does Bigger's mother cope with her misery?

(A) She drinks

(B) She is devoutly religious

(D) She goes to the movies

16. What is the first violent act Bigger commits during the novel?

(A) He attacks Gus without provocation or warning

(B) He robs Blum's delicatessen at gunpoint

(D) He kills Mary Dalton

17. What does Buddy think about Bigger's job with the Daltons?

(A) Buddy envies Bigger's job

(B) Buddy thinks Bigger's job is degrading and menial

(D) Buddy does not think Bigger's job pays enough

18. What does Bigger do with Mary's body?

(A) He hides it in Mary's trunk

(B) He throws it down an airshaft in an empty building on the South Side

(D) He burns it in the Daltons' furnace

19. Where does Bigger first see Mary Dalton?

(A) At his job interview

(B) In a newsreel at a movie theater

(D) At Blum's delicatessen

20. Why does Bigger not flee Chicago after Mary's bones are discovered?

(A) The police block every road in and out of the city

(B) He decides it is better just to give up

(D) Bigger does not want to leave his family

21. What happened to Bigger's father?

(A) He abandoned the family when Bigger was ten years old

(B) He was killed in a riot in the South

(D) He committed suicide

22. What famous court cases parallel Bigger's trial?

(A) The Lindbergh kidnapping and murder case

(B) The Scopes trial and the Brown v. Board of Education case

(D) The Nixon case and the Loeb-Leopold kidnapping and murder trial

23. To which literary genre does Native Son belong?

(A) Urban naturalism

(B) Romanticism

(D) All of the above

24. Why are rents on the South Side higher than in other Chicago neighborhoods?

(A) It is an upscale neighborhood with nice apartments

(B) The rents on the South Side include all utility bills

(D) Racist rental policies have created an artificial housing shortage on the South Side

25. Who is the author of Native Son?

(A) James Baldwin

(B) Richard Wright

(D) Langston Hughes

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Native Son

African American Literature

Modernist Literature

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