MCQ -Biogrpahy and works of Toni Morrison
1. Toni Morrison was born in which Ohio town?
A) Cleveland
B) Cincinnati
C) Lorain
D) Columbus
Answer: C) Lorain
2. What was Morrison’s birth name?
A) Chloe Ardelia Wofford
B) Toni Louise Morrison
C) Chloe Anthony Wofford
D) Toni Ardelia Wofford
Answer: A) Chloe Ardelia Wofford (She later adopted "Toni" from her baptismal name, Anthony.)
3. Morrison’s parents migrated to Ohio from:
A) The Deep South
B) The Caribbean
C) West Africa
D) New England
Answer: A) The Deep South (As part of the Great Migration.)
4. Which university did Morrison attend for her undergraduate degree?
A) Cornell
B) Howard
C) Princeton
D) Yale
Answer: B) Howard (She earned a B.A. in English in 1953.)
5. Morrison’s first novel, The Bluest Eye, is set in:
A) Harlem, 1920s
B) Lorain, 1941
C) Detroit, 1960s
D) Chicago, 1950s
Answer: B) Lorain, 1941 (Her hometown during the Great Depression.)
6. In The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove is obsessed with:
A) Becoming a singer
B) Having blue eyes
C) Escaping to the North
D) Finding her father
Answer: B) Having blue eyes (Symbolizing white beauty standards.)
7. Which Morrison novel features the character “Milkman” Dead?
A) Sula
B) Song of Solomon
C) Beloved
D) Tar Baby
Answer: B) Song of Solomon
8. Beloved was inspired by the true story of:
A) Harriet Tubman
B) Margaret Garner
C) Sojourner Truth
D) Phillis Wheatley
Answer: B) Margaret Garner (An enslaved woman who killed her child to prevent her return to slavery.)
9. Why did Morrison change her name?
A) People couldn’t pronounce Chloe
B) To write Black fiction
C) To obscure her gender
D) To avoid her family
Answer: People couldn’t pronounce Chloe
10. Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for:
A) Song of Solomon
B) Beloved
C) Jazz
D) The Bluest Eye
Answer: B) Beloved (1988)
11. Morrison’s Jazz is set primarily in:
A) New Orleans, 1890s
B) Harlem, 1920s
C) Chicago, 1950s
D) Detroit, 1960s
Answer: B) Harlem, 1920s
12. Which novel completes Morrison’s "trilogy" with Beloved and Jazz?
A) Paradise
B) Love
C) A Mercy
D) Home
Answer: A) Paradise (1998)
13. In Sula, the character Shadrack creates:
A) A underground railroad
B) National Suicide Day
C) A jazz band
D) A marigold garden
Answer: B) National Suicide Day (January 3, reflecting his PTSD from WWI.)
14. Morrison’s only published short story is:
A) “Sweetness”
B) “Recitatif”
C) “The Lesson”
D) “Everyday Use”
Answer: B) “Recitatif” (1983, exploring racial ambiguity.)
15. Which novel features a character named Jadine, a Sorbonne graduate?
A) Tar Baby
B) Love
C) A Mercy
D) God Help the Child
Answer: A) Tar Baby (1981)
16. Morrison’s Playing in the Dark analyzes whiteness in the works of:
A) Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston
B) Poe, Hawthorne, and Hemingway
C) Faulkner and Woolf
D) James Baldwin and Richard Wright
Answer: B) Poe, Hawthorne, and Hemingway (Literary criticism, 1992.)
17. Morrison’s last novel, God Help the Child, originally had the title:
A) The Wrath of Children
B) The Color of Pain
C) Baby’s Venom
D) Homecoming
Answer: A) The Wrath of Children (2014)
18. Which novel is set during the Korean War?
A) Home
B) A Mercy
C) Jazz
D) Paradise
Answer: A) Home (2012, follows veteran Frank Money.)
19. Morrison’s Desdemona is a:
A) Novel
B) Play
C) Poem
D) Essay collection
Answer: B) Play (2011, reimagining Shakespeare’s Othello.)
20. Which novel features the Convent, a target of violence in Ruby, Oklahoma?
A) Paradise
B) Love
C) A Mercy
D) Sula
Answer: A) Paradise (1998)
21. Morrison’s mother worked as:
A) A teacher
B) A shipyard welder
C) A church choir singer
D) A nurse
Answer: C) A church choir singer (Her father was the welder.)
22. Morrison’s The Bluest Eye was inspired by:
A) A childhood friend’s wish for blue eyes
B) A news article about racial violence
C) Her mother’s stories
D) A dream
Answer: A) A childhood friend’s wish for blue eyes
23. In Song of Solomon, Milkman’s real name is:
A) Macon Dead III
B) Solomon Northup
C) Cholly Breedlove
D) Joe Trace
Answer: A) Macon Dead III
24. Morrison’s A Mercy is set in:
A) The 17th century
B) The Civil Rights era
C) The Great Migration
D) The Harlem Renaissance
Answer: A) The 17th century (Early colonial America.)
25. Which character in Beloved says, “You your best thing”?
A) Sethe
B) Paul D
C) Denver
D) Baby Suggs
Answer: B) Paul D (To Sethe, affirming self-worth.)
26. Morrison’s The Source of Self-Regard is a:
A) Novel
B) Poetry collection
C) Essay anthology
D) Memoir
Answer: C) Essay anthology (2019, includes speeches and meditations.)
27. Which novel explores colorism through the character Bride?
A) God Help the Child
B) Tar Baby
C) Sula
D) Love
Answer: A) God Help the Child
28. Morrison’s Dreaming Emmett is a:
A) Novel
B) Play about Emmett Till
C) Poem
D) Biography
Answer: B) Play about Emmett Till (1986)
29. In Sula, the character Chicken Little:
A) Opens a bakery
B) Drowns accidentally
C) Leads a protest
D) Becomes a musician
Answer: B) Drowns accidentally (A pivotal moment in the novel.)
30. Morrison’s Five Poems was illustrated by:
A) Kara Walker
B) Jacob Lawrence
C) Romare Bearden
D) Faith Ringgold
Answer: A) Kara Walker (2002)
31. Morrison’s Love centers on the legacy of:
A) Bill Cosey
B) Macon Dead
C) Joe Trace
D) Cholly Breedlove
Answer: A) Bill Cosey (A charismatic but destructive figure.)
32. Morrison’s Home critiques:
A) The Korean War’s impact on Black soldiers
B) The Harlem Renaissance
C) The Great Migration
D) The Civil Rights Movement
Answer: A) The Korean War’s impact on Black soldiers
33. Morrison was the first African American woman to win …………..?
A) Pulitzer Prize
B) Man Booker Prize
C) Hugo Award
D) Nobel Prize in Literature
Answer: Nobel Prize in Literature
34. Morrison’s The Origin of Others was foreworded by:
A) Ta-Nehisi Coates
B) Angela Davis
C) Oprah Winfrey
D) James Baldwin
Answer: A) Ta-Nehisi Coates (2017, analyzing race and belonging.)
35. In Tar Baby, the Caribbean setting symbolizes:
A) Racial utopia
B) Colonial exploitation
C) Cultural isolation
D) Religious revival
Answer: B) Colonial exploitation (Contrasts with Jadine’s privilege.)
36. Morrison’s N'Orleans: The Storyville Musical collaborator was:
A) Donald McKayle
B) August Wilson
C) Lorraine Hansberry
D) Amiri Baraka
Answer: A) Donald McKayle (1982, blending jazz and history.)
37. Which novel’s protagonist is named Florens?
A) A Mercy
B) Home
C) Paradise
D) Love
Answer: A) A Mercy (An enslaved girl in colonial America.)
38. Morrison’s The Bluest Eye initially:
A) Won the National Book Award
B) Was a commercial failure
C) Was banned in Ohio
D) Inspired a Broadway play
Answer: B) Was a commercial failure (Later became a classic.)
39. Which of the following awards did Toni Morrison NOT win?
A) Nobel Prize in Literature
B) Pulitzer Prize
C) National Book Award
D) Man Booker Prize
Answer: D) Man Booker Prize
40. Morrison’s Paradise critiques:
A) Religious fundamentalism
B) Urban poverty
C) The jazz age
D) The Civil War
Answer: A) Religious fundamentalism (Through Ruby’s patriarchal violence.)
41. Morrison’s Song of Solomon draws from:
A) Her grandfather’s stories
B) Greek mythology
C) The Bible
D) All of the above
Answer: D) All of the above (Mythic and familial influences.)
42. In Jazz, Violet Trace is nicknamed “Violent” after:
A) Attacking her husband’s lover
B) Leading a riot
C) Killing her child
D) Burning down a church
Answer: A) Attacking her husband’s lover (A moment of madness.)
43. Morrison’s Recitatif explores:
A) Slavery’s legacy
B) Racial ambiguity
C) The Great Migration
D) Jazz music
Answer: B) Racial ambiguity (Never revealing which character is Black/white.)
44. Which novel’s epigraph is “Whose house is this?”?
A) Beloved
B) Jazz
C) Paradise
D) Home
Answer: B) Jazz (A haunting refrain.)
45. Morrison’s last novel God Help the Child opens with:
A) A childbirth scene
B) A courtroom trial
C) A car accident
D) A letter
Answer: A) A childbirth scene (Bride’s traumatic birth due to her dark skin.)
46. Which work critiques Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not?
A) Playing in the Dark
B) The Origin of Others
C) The Source of Self-Regard
D) Recitatif
Answer: A) Playing in the Dark (Analyzing racial subtexts.)
47. Morrison’s Desdemona responds to:
A) Othello
B) Antigone
C) Medea
D) Hamlet
Answer: A) Othello (Giving voice to Desdemona.)
48. In The Bluest Eye, Claudia MacTeer symbolizes:
A) Resistance to beauty standards
B) Blind conformity
C) Religious faith
D) Maternal sacrifice
Answer: A) Resistance to beauty standards (She destroys white dolls.)
49. Morrison’s Five Poems themes include:
A) Slavery and memory
B) Jazz and urban life
C) Childhood trauma
D) All of the above
Answer: D) All of the above (Kara Walker’s art complements these.)
50. Morrison’s archive is housed at:
A) Harvard
B) Princeton
C) Howard
D) The Library of Congress
Answer: B) Princeton (Where she taught for 17 years.)
51.Which of the following books was NOT written by Toni Morrison?
A) Beloved
B) Sula
C) The Color Purple
D) Song of Solomon
Answer: C) The Color Purple
52.What was Toni Morrison's first novel?
A) The Bluest Eye
B) Beloved
C) Song of Solomon
D) Sula
Answer: A) The Bluest Eye
53.In what year did Toni Morrison pass away?
A) 2017
B) 2018
C) 2019
D) 2020
Answer: C) 2019
54.What was Toni Morrison's profession before becoming a writer?
A) Teacher
B) Nurse
C) Librarian
D) Lawyer
Answer: C) Librarian
55.Which of Toni Morrison's novels explores the lives of three generations of women in a family?
A) Beloved
B) Song of Solomon
C) Tar Baby
D) Sula
Answer: D) Sula
0 comments:
Post a Comment