Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison Study question

Toni Morrison’s Literary Works

Beloved

Facts about Toni Morrison

➾ She was born Chloe Anthony Wofford, later shortening her name to Toni.

➾ Her maternal grandfather, John Solomon Willis, taught himself to read, inspiring her novel *Song of Solomon*.

➾ In first grade, she was the only African American student and the only child who already knew how to read.

➾ Due to her skill, she often helped the children of new immigrants learn to read in school.

➾ A landlord torched her family’s apartment in 1933 while they were still inside.

➾ Her mother once wrote President Franklin Roosevelt a letter complaining about insect-riddled welfare food.

➾ She changed her first name to Toni at university because classmates struggled to pronounce Chloe.

➾ As a senior editor, she groomed and published major black voices, including Muhammad Ali and Angela Davis.

➾ She wrote her first novel, *The Bluest Eye*, secretly and compulsively as therapy for depression and isolation.

➾ She became the first African American woman to hold a named chair at an Ivy League university (Princeton).

➾ Her masterpiece, *Beloved*, was inspired by a nineteenth-century clipping she found while researching *The Black Book*.

Toni Morrison MCQs

1. When was Chloe Anthony Wofford, later known as Toni Morrison, born?

A. August 5, 1931
B. February 18, 1931
C. March 31, 1938
D. January 26, 1933

B. February 18, 1931
She was born on this date in Lorain, Ohio.

2. Where was Toni Morrison born?

A. New York City, New York
B. Lorain, Ohio
C. Washington, D.C., USA
D. Syracuse, New York

B. Lorain, Ohio
She was born in this working-class town west of Cleveland, Ohio.

3. What was Toni Morrison’s birth name?

A. Ramah Willis
B. Toni Wofford
C. Chloe Anthony Wofford
D. Lois Wofford

C. Chloe Anthony Wofford
She adopted the name Toni (from her confirmation name, Anthony) during college.

4. What novel was based on the short story Toni Morrison wrote while married to Harold Morrison?

A. Song of Solomon
B. Sula
C. Beloved
D. The Bluest Eye

D. The Bluest Eye
The short story about a black girl who wished for blue eyes formed the basis of her debut novel (1970).

5. Which novel, chronologically, is the last work listed?

A. Home
B. Love
C. God Help the Child
D. A Mercy

C. God Help the Child (2015)
This novel, published in 2015, is her latest listed major work.

6. What genre is Toni Morrison primarily known for creating a literary language within?

A. Southern Gothic
B. Autobiographical memoirs
C. African American fiction
D. Historical poetry

C. African American fiction
Her work defined the contemporary landscape for black American narrative.

7. For which reason is Toni Morrison considered a major architect in American literature?

A. She was the first African American woman to hold a chair at an Ivy League university.
B. She wrote bestseller novels that cut across racial boundaries.
C. She created a literary language and sensibility for African Americans.
D. She served as editor for Random House for nearly two decades.

C. She created a literary language and sensibility for African Americans.
She developed an aesthetic that centered the black experience using black vernacular and oral traditions.

8. In what year did Toni Morrison receive the Nobel Prize in Literature?

A. 1987
B. 1992
C. 1993
D. 2012

C. 1993
She became the first African American woman to win the award.

9. Which novel, often considered her masterpiece, won the Pulitzer Prize?

A. Song of Solomon
B. Sula
C. Beloved
D. Tar Baby

C. Beloved
Beloved (1987) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.

10. What nickname have critics given Toni Morrison due to her ability to identify with and actualize fictional creations, drawing on collective consciousness and oral traditions?

A. The Story Weaver
B. The Midwest Matrix
C. The Literary Archeologist
D. The Conjure Woman

D. The Conjure Woman
This nickname reflects the magical, mythical, and deeply rooted elements of her storytelling.

11. Where did Toni Morrison obtain her B.A. in English in 1953?

A. Cornell University
B. Princeton University
C. Howard University
D. Texas Southern University

C. Howard University in Washington D.C.
She graduated from the historically black college (HBCU) in 1953.

12. What was Toni Morrison’s minor field of study at Howard University?

A. Mathematics
B. African American Studies
C. Classics
D. History

C. Classics
Her study of Greek and Roman classics informed her narrative structures and themes.

13. Which university did Toni Morrison attend to receive her M.A. in English in 1955?

A. Harvard
B. Cornell
C. Yale
D. Princeton

B. Cornell
She earned her Master of Arts degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

14. What was the focus of Toni Morrison’s master’s degree concentration?

A. James Baldwin and Richard Wright
B. Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston
C. William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf
D. Sterling Brown and Alain Locke

C. Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner
Her thesis compared the role of social outsiders in the works of these two modernists.

15. What literary movement influenced Toni Morrison’s family background, as her grandparents moved out of the South to Ohio?

A. The Harlem Renaissance
B. The Civil Rights Movement
C. The Great Migration
D. Post-Reconstruction

C. The Great Migration
Her family’s move north was part of the mass movement of African Americans out of the rural South in the early 20th century.

16. Which of Toni Morrison’s grandparents’ lives served as an inspiration for her novel Song of Solomon?

A. Her maternal grandfather, John Solomon Willis.
B. Her paternal grandfather, George Wofford.
C. Her maternal grandmother, Ardelia Willis.
D. Her parents, George and Ramah Wofford.

A. Her maternal grandfather, John Solomon Willis.
The novel’s central character, Macon Dead, Jr. (Milkman), is searching for his great-grandfather, whose true name was Solomon.

17. Before becoming a senior editor in New York City, where did Morrison first take a job as an associate editor at Random House in 1964?

A. Lorain, Ohio
B. Syracuse, New York
C. Washington, D.C.
D. Albany, New York

B. Syracuse, New York
She started her editorial career in Syracuse after divorcing her husband, Harold Morrison.

18. Toni Morrison left Random House in what year?

A. 1970
B. 1977
C. 1983
D. 1987

C. 1983
She left her editorial post to focus on her writing and teaching career.

19. Toni Morrison was the first African American woman writer to hold a named chair at which type of institution, beginning with her position at Princeton?

A. A historically black college or university (HBCU)
B. A major state university
C. An Ivy League university
D. A community college

C. An Ivy League university
She held the Robert F. Goheen Professorship in Humanities at Princeton University starting in 1989.

20. What was the name of the non-fiction work Morrison published in 1992 alongside her novel Jazz?

A. The Black Book
B. Dreaming Emmett
C. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
D. A Mercy

C. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
This collection of essays explores the role and presence of “whiteness” in American literature.

21. What did essayist Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah credit Morrison with giving Black America?

A. A new language
B. A record of gesture and custom and being and belonging
C. The ability to escape Eurocentrism
D. Financial success through literature

B. A record of gesture and custom and being and belonging
This quote emphasizes Morrison’s role in preserving and affirming African American culture and history.

22. Which politician presented Toni Morrison with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012?

A. President Jimmy Carter
B. President Franklin Roosevelt
C. President Barack Obama
D. President Bill Clinton

C. President Barack Obama
She received this high civilian honor from President Obama.

23. What does Toni Morrison confess to “[thinking]” in her exploration of infanticide, rape, and madness in Beloved?

A. The unimaginable
B. The painful past
C. The unthinkable
D. The collective sorrow

C. The unthinkable
She explored the deepest psychological trauma of slavery, often deemed too painful to articulate.

24. What is the central assertion of Toni Morrison’s credo regarding black people?

A. They must strive for advancement.
B. They are a marginal group.
C. They are people, not aliens.
D. They are only defined by suffering.

C. We are people, not aliens.
This assertion emphasizes the essential humanity of black people, rejecting marginalized views.

25. What did Morrison’s parents do for a living before moving to Ohio?

A. Her father was a farmer, and her mother was a teacher.
B. Her father was a shipyard welder, and her mother sang in the church choir.
C. Her father was a sharecropper, and her mother was a homemaker.
D. Her parents were academics at Kentucky State.

B. Her father was a shipyard welder, and her mother sang in the church choir.
Her parents, George and Ramah Wofford, maintained working-class jobs.

26. Which novel focuses on a stormy relationship between a man and a woman and introduced an ambivalent main character named Jadine?

A. Sula
B. Tar Baby
C. Jazz
D. Love

B. Tar Baby (1981)
This novel explores the tension between Jadine’s Westernized identity and her African American roots.

27. What served as a “tightly woven safety net” for Morrison when she was growing up?

A. The multicultural environment of Lorain.
B. Her parents’ contrasting views on race relations.
C. The women of the black community.
D. Her education at an integrated school.

C. The women of the black community.
She cited the strong sense of community and support from black women as crucial to her upbringing.

28. Which novel, published in 1977, was strongly influenced by the death of Morrison’s father and is a mythic tale about slaves who fly to Africa?

A. Tar Baby
B. The Bluest Eye
C. Song of Solomon
D. Beloved

C. Song of Solomon
This novel is dedicated to her father and features the myth of the flying African.

29. What was the subject of Toni Morrison’s first published novel, The Bluest Eye?

A. The tragic life of an emancipated slave woman.
B. A young girl who loses her mind and desires blue eyes.
C. A complex relationship on a Caribbean island.
D. The history of an all-black town in Oklahoma.

B. A young girl who loses her mind and desires blue eyes.
The novel explores the internalized racism suffered by the protagonist, Pecola Breedlove.

30. In Beloved, what historical figure inspired the character Sethe, who murdered her child rather than see her family returned to slavery?

A. Angela Davis
B. Ramah Willis Wofford
C. Margaret Garner
D. Pecola Breedlove

C. Margaret Garner
The real-life story of Margaret Garner, who killed her daughter to prevent her return to slavery, was the direct inspiration for Sethe’s character.

31. In the dedication of Beloved, Toni Morrison refers to “sixty million and more.” Who are these victims?

A. The children of Lorain, Ohio
B. The victims of two centuries of slavery
C. The victims of infanticide in the South
D. Those lost during the Great Migration

B. The victims of two centuries of slavery
This dedication acknowledges the untold number of lives lost to the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery itself.

32. What work did Toni Morrison compile in 1974, introduced by Bill Cosby, that served as a “folk journey of Black America”?

A. Sula
B. The Black Book
C. Playing in the Dark
D. Jazz

B. The Black Book
This documentary compilation of black life, from slavery to the 1970s, was edited by Morrison.

33. What did the research for The Black Book provide for Morrison’s later fiction?

A. Financial security
B. A cache of motifs, themes, and images
C. Her first television interview
D. The motivation to leave Random House

B. A cache of motifs, themes, and images
The documentation of historical black life served as vital research material for her novels.

34. Which of her novels is set against events in African American history from 1880 through 1926, with the main story taking place in 1920s Harlem?

A. Paradise
B. Jazz
C. Home
D. Tar Baby

B. Jazz (1992)
This novel focuses on the Harlem Renaissance era and the Great Migration.

35. Which novel explores the history of Ruby, Oklahoma, an all-black town whose residents learn that isolation does not guarantee freedom from oppression?

A. Beloved
B. Love
C. Paradise
D. A Mercy

C. Paradise (1998)
This novel explores the formation and self-destructive isolation of a Utopian black community.

36. As an editor at Random House, Toni Morrison was known for developing the talent of which group of writers?

A. European novelists
B. Black authors and figures
C. Midwest regional writers
D. White male critics

B. Black authors and figures, including Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali
She played a key role in bringing African American literature and nonfiction to mainstream publishing.

37. What two cultural elements did Morrison draw upon, according to critics, which made her work “fluid and lyrical, as full of sorrow and gusto”?

A. Jazz and European classics.
B. The blues and oral tradition/myth.
C. Southern customs and Ohio history.
D. History and political commentary.

B. The blues and oral tradition/myth.
Her style integrates musical and folk forms, distinguishing her work from Eurocentric literary styles.

38. According to Angela Davis, what did Morrison teach the world to imagine regarding enslaved wómen and men?

A. Their journey to the North.
B. Their complex subjectivities and full interiority.
C. The horrors of the trans-Atlantic trade.
D. Their need for abolitionist aid.

B. Their complex subjectivities, with full lives and interiority.
Davis praised Morrison for giving voice and depth to the inner lives of enslaved people.

39. What did Morrison attribute the initial success of her first novel, The Bluest Eye, to in terms of publishing trends?

A. Critical acclaim.
B. A desire for a black writer in the company’s stable.
C. The compelling subject matter.
D. Its inclusion in Redbook.

B. The company wanted a black writer in its stable (racial reasons).
She candidly believed her being black made her attractive to publishers in the era of rising black consciousness.

40. How did Morrison handle the setting of her Midwestern beginnings in her writing?

A. She avoided it completely, preferring the South.
B. She stated it was an escape from stereotyped black settings like “plantation nor ghetto”.
C. She criticized the racism she faced in Lorain.
D. She used it only for her early, less popular works.

B. She stated it was an escape from stereotyped black settings like “plantation nor ghetto”.
Her Ohio setting offered her freedom from the limited expectations placed on black novelists.

41. When Morrison was pursuing her M.A. at Cornell, she was concentrating on the work of which two authors?

A. Toni Cade Bambara and Gayl Jones
B. Shakespeare and Hawthorne
C. William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf
D. Sterling Brown and Alain Locke

C. William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf
Her thesis on the theme of the marginalized outsider involved a detailed analysis of these two white modernist writers.

42. Toni Morrison’s work focuses on blackness and is told in which distinctive style?

A. Academic prose
B. Eurocentric perspective
C. Black vernacular
D. Post-modernism

C. Black vernacular
She deliberately integrated the speech patterns, rhetoric, and rhythm of the black oral tradition into her narrative.

43. Which novel secured Morrison a nomination for the National Book Award in 1974?

A. The Bluest Eye
B. Sula
C. Tar Baby
D. Beloved

B. Sula
This novel about the intense friendship between two black women, Sula and Nel, was nominated for the National Book Award in 1975.

44. Which prestigious American award did Song of Solomon win?

A. The Nobel Prize
B. The Presidential Medal of Freedom
C. The National Book Critics Circle Award
D. The Melcher Book Award

C. The National Book Critics Circle Award (1977).
The novel was a major critical and commercial success, winning this prize.

45. In 1986, the New York State Writers Institute commissioned Morrison to write a dramatization about the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. What was the title of this work?

A. Storyville
B. Dreaming Emmett
C. The Black Book
D. Home

B. Dreaming Emmett
This play was based on the 1955 murder that helped spark the Civil Rights Movement.

46. What was a primary theme Morrison explored in Beloved related to slavery?

A. The psychological effects of racism.
B. The paradox of motherhood within slavery.
C. The failures of the Abolitionist Movement.
D. The search for black identity.

B. The paradox of motherhood within slavery.
The novel focuses on the impossible choices faced by enslaved mothers trying to protect their children.

47. How did critic Nellie Y. McKay compare Toni Morrison’s imaginative flow and control of inner dialogue?

A. To Maya Angelou and Alice Walker.
B. To James Joyce and William Faulkner.
C. To Nikki Giovanni and Angela Davis.
D. To Homer and Virgil.

B. To James Joyce and William Faulkner.
McKay noted her modernist mastery of stream-of-consciousness and complex narrative techniques.

48. When Morrison’s mother expressed alarm about her move to Syracuse, what did Morrison reply about her need for community?

A. I will return soon.
B. “You take the village with you. There is no need for the community if you have a sense of it inside”.
C. I will find a new community there.
D. My writing will be my community.

B. “You take the village with you. There is no need for the community if you have a sense of it inside”.
This response reflects her belief that black culture and consciousness are internalized and transportable.

49. Morrison’s ability to identify with and actualize fictional creations, drawing on a collective consciousness, led her to think of her art as what?

A. Experimental
B. Political
C. Autobiographical
D. Marginal

B. Political
She viewed her art of empowering black subjectivities as inherently political in the American context.

50. According to the Nobel Foundation, what essential aspect of American reality does Toni Morrison give life to?

A. The struggle for civil rights.
B. The literary imagination of the South.
C. The history that had been lost.
D. An essential aspect of American reality.

D. An essential aspect of American reality.
The Nobel Prize cited her work for giving life to “an essential aspect of American reality in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import.”

The Bluest Eye MCQs

1. What colors describe the ideal Dick and Jane house?

A. Red, white, and blue
B. Green and white
C. Brown and orange
D. Yellow and black

B. Green and white.
The opening lines describe the standard, pretty, happy house where the white family resides.

2. What does the cat do in the opening Dick and Jane narrative?

A. Hunts a dog
B. It goes meow-meow
C. Refuses to play
D. Runs very fast

B. It goes meow-meow.
The instructional text introducing the ideal family home mentions that the pet cat makes a “meow-meow” sound.

3. According to the narrator, why did the marigolds not grow in 1941?

A. The seeds were old
B. The spring was cold
C. Pecola was having a baby
D. The earth was unyielding

C. Pecola was having a baby.
The characters initially believed the marigolds failed to grow because Pecola was pregnant with her father’s child.

4. What happened to both the marigold seeds and Pecola’s baby?

A. Both grew strongly
B. Seeds sprouted fine
C. Both shriveled and died
D. Earth ate them

C. Both shriveled and died.
Claudia notes that the seeds shriveled and died, just as Pecola’s baby also died shortly after birth.

5. What did Claudia and Frieda want to smash out of Rosemary Villanucci?

A. Her friendly attitude
B. Her quiet sadness
C. Pride of ownership
D. Her blue eyes

C. Pride of ownership.
The girls stared at Rosemary’s display of wealth and wanted to smash the arrogance and pride she showed.

6. What foul medicines did adults give Claudia when she caught a cold?

A. Vicks salve and tea
B. Black Draught, castor oil
C. Peppermint drops
D. Alaga syrup

B. Black Draught, castor oil.
The narrator notes that their illness is treated with contempt, specifically “foul Black Draught, and castor oil”.

7. What kind of light lit the sky when the girls collected coal near the steel mill?

A. Silver and bright
B. Dull orange glow
C. Blue and dark
D. Red and white

B. Dull orange glow.
The dying fire from the great carloads of slag being dumped lit the sky with a dull orange glow.

8. What emotion eased Claudia’s pain, described as “thick and dark as Alaga syrup”?

A. Guilt and pity
B. Sorrow and grief
C. Love, thick and dark
D. Quiet contentment

C. Love, thick and dark.
Claudia describes the feeling that “eased up into that cracked window” as Love, thick and dark.

9. What famous fictional characters does Mr. Henry call Claudia and Frieda?

A. Alice and Jerry
B. Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers
C. Rosemary and Pecola
D. Ginger and Fred

B. Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers.
When Mr. Henry first speaks to the girls, he refers to them using these names, startling their father.

10. What did Mr. Henry smell like upon his arrival?

A. Whiskey and smoke
B. Old leather
C. Trees, cream, Sen-Sen
D. Coal and dirt

C. Trees, cream, Sen-Sen.
Mr. Henry smelled “wonderful,” specifically like trees, vanishing cream, Nu Nile Hair Oil, and flecks of Sen-Sen.

11. What is the fundamental difference between being “put out” and being “outdoors”?

A. Being pòor vs hungry
B. Go somewhere vs nowhere
C. Being rude vs criminal
D. Losing clothes vs house

B. Go somewhere vs nowhere.
Being “put out” means you go somewhere else; being “outdoors” means having absolutely no place to go.

12. What was the “big, special, loving gift” Claudia always received for Christmas?

A. A Raggedy Ann
B. A red dress
C. Blue-eyed Baby Doll
D. A Shirley Temple cup

C. Blue-eyed Baby Doll.
The most cherished gift was always a large, white, blue-eyed Baby Doll, representing ideal white beauty.

13. What sound did the doll’s cry, “Mama,” actually sound like to Claudia?

A. A dying lamb
B. A shrieking child
C. Icebox door opening
D. A rusty spring

C. Icebox door opening.
The doll’s mechanical cry sounded to Claudia like “our icebox door opening on rusty hinges in July”.

14. What experience did Claudia secretly wish for instead of gifts on Christmas?

A. To receive blue eyes
B. To visit the lake
C. Big Papa’s violin
D. New clothes

C. Big Papa’s violin.
Claudia wanted to sit in Big Mama’s kitchen and listen to Big Papa play his violin just for her.

15. What did Claudia realize about learning to worship Shirley Temple?

A. It brought happiness
B. It was honest love
C. Adjustment without improvement
D. It was her duty

C. Adjustment without improvement.
Claudia realized that learning to love Shirley Temple was an “adjustment without improvement,” a fabricated change.

16. Why did Pecola drink so much milk from the Shirley Temple cup?

A. She hated the milk
B. To see Shirley’s face
C. She was greedy
D. It was the only cup

B. To see Shirley’s face.
Pecola enjoyed drinking milk from the cup just to handle and gaze fondly at Shirley Temple’s dimpled face.

17. What political topic did the girls try to avoid hearing from Mama’s long soliloquies?

A. Henry Ford’s money
B. Poverty wages
C. Roosevelt and CCC camps
D. Cholly’s arrest

C. Roosevelt and CCC camps.
The girls knew when Mama started fussing about the pòor, she would soon discuss Roosevelt and the CCC camps.

18. What item did Frieda take from her own skirt to secure Pecola’s napkin?

A. Two pieces of string
B. A small belt
C. Two safety pins
D. A shoelace

C. Two safety pins.
Frieda secured the white cotton napkin to Pecola’s dress using two safety pins taken from the hem of her own skirt.

19. What did Frieda say was necessary for Pecola to have a baby?

A. Getting married
B. Having grown up
C. Somebody has to love you
D. Lots of blood

C. Somebody has to love you.
When Pecola asked if she could have a baby, Frieda replied simply that “somebody has to love you”.

20. Before the Breedloves, what kind of business was housed in the storefront?

A. A bakery
B. A candy shop
C. Pizza parlor
D. Real estate office

C. Pizza parlor.
The abandoned store where the Breedloves lived had recently housed a pizza parlor, a baker, and a realtor.

21. What object in the Breedloves’ bedroom is described as the only “living thing”?

A. The upright piano
B. The dirty sofa
C. The coal stove
D. The artificial tree

C. The coal stove.
The coal stove was considered the only living thing because its fire operated independently of the family’s control.

22. The Breedloves stayed in the storefront because they believed what about their ugliness?

A. It was temporary
B. It was shared shame
C. Theirs was unique
D. It was invisible

C. Theirs was unique.
The family stayed in the storefront because they believed their “ugliness was unique,” a profound internal conviction.

23. Mrs. Breedlove used her ugliness as a prop to support what perceived role?

A. Loving mother
B. Martyrdom
C. Hard worker
D. Strong wife

B. Martyrdom.
Mrs. Breedlove used her perceived ugliness like an actor uses a prop to articulate her role as a martyr.

24. Pecola believed that if her eyes were beautiful, who else would change?

A. Her classmates
B. The store owner
C. Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove
D. Her teachers

C. Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove.
Pecola hoped that if her eyes were beautiful, her parents would stop doing bad things in front of them.

25. What did Pecola whisper when she wished she could disappear during her parents’ fight?

A. Please make them stop
B. Please make me disappear
C. I want to die
D. Help me, Jesus

B. Please make me disappear.
Pecola attempted to dissolve her body, piece by piece, by whispering, “Please make me disappear”.

26. What flower did Pecola admire, despite grown-ups calling them weeds?

A. Hollyhocks
B. Crocus blades
C. Dandelions
D. Lilacs

C. Dandelions.
Pecola admired the yellow dandelions, wondering why people, like Miss Dunion, called them weeds.

27. What specific candy did Pecola buy with her three pennies?

A. Powerhouse bars
B. Lemon drops
C. Mary Janes
D. Licorice

C. Mary Janes.
Pecola spent her three pennies on Mary Jane’s candy, enjoying its peanut butter and caramel sweetness.

28. What quality did Pecola notice in Mr. Yacobowski’s eyes towards her?

A. Fear
B. Pity
C. Vacuum edged with distaste
D. Curiosity

C. Vacuum edged with distaste.
Pecola perceived a “total absence of human recognition” and a “vacuum edged with distaste” for her blackness.

29. Which of the three sex workers was described as “forever ironing, forever singing”?

A. China
B. Miss Marie
C. Poland
D. Maginot Line

C. Poland.
Poland was described as perpetually ironing and singing in a sweet, hard voice like new strawberries.

30. What did the pròstitutes call women who deceived their husbands?

A. Little girls
B. Simple fools
C. Sugar-coated whores
D. Wives

C. Sugar-coated whores.
They reserved this insulting title for women who engaged in affairs but were not professional sex workers.

31. What did Pecola conclude love might be based on watching her parents?

A. Sweet talk
B. Choking sounds and silence
C. Loud laughter
D. Eating fish

B. Choking sounds and silence.
Pecola interpreted her father’s choking sounds and her mother’s resulting silence as the potential expression of adult love.

32. What specific physical flaw gave the girls a “minor epiphany” about Maureen Peal?

A. Crooked legs
B. Dog tooth, six fingers
C. Short hair
D. Fat ankles

B. Dog tooth, six fingers.
The girls found triumph in discovering her small dog tooth and the bump where an extra finger had been removed.

33. What specific chant did the boys use to harass Pecola in the playground?

A. Ugly black girl
B. Six-finger dog tooth
C. Black e mo ya daddy
D. Pecola loves Bay Boy

C. Black e mo ya daddy.
The boys sang about Pecola’s blackness and wildly speculated on her father’s sleeping habits (“ya daddy sleeps nekked”).

34. What caused Claudia to swing at Maureen and hit Pecola instead?

A. Maureen took Pecola’s candy
B. Maureen called them ugly
C. Maureen talked to the boys
D. Maureen started skipping

B. Maureen called them ugly.
Claudia swung after Maureen called her and Frieda “Black and ugly black e mos”.

35. How did Maureen explain why boys have belly buttons if only girls need them for “like-lines”?

A. They grow later
B. Things they don’t need
C. They remove them
D. Boys need blood, too

B. Things they don’t need.
Maureen concluded that boys must have all sorts of unnecessary things since they do not carry babies.

36. What quality did “plain brown girls” attending college learn to discard?

A. Thrift
B. Morals
C. The funkiness
D. Obedience

C. The funkiness.
They were taught refinement and manners—in short, “how to get rid of the funkiness” of passion and nature.

37. What pet did the “plain brown girl” sometimes engage her affections with?

A. A dog
B. A cat
C. A bird
D. A goldfish

B. A cat.
A cat is described as loving her order and constancy, often settling quietly in her lap.

38. What distinction did Geraldine make between “colòred people” and “niggers”?

A. Skin shade difference
B. Location
C. Neat, quiet vs dirty, loud
D. Wealth and housing

C. Neat, quiet vs dirty, loud.
Colòred people were defined as neat and quiet, while niggers were dirty, loud, and often ashen.

39. What did Junior use to lure Pecola into his house?

A. Money
B. Promise of kittens
C. Sweet candy
D. His own kindness

B. Promise of kittens.
Junior told Pecola he had kittens inside and that she could have one if she wanted to see them.

40. What religious object in Geraldine’s home was decorated with paper flowers?

A. A large Bible
B. A silver cross
C. Picture of Jesus Christ
D. A statue of Mary

C. Picture of Jesus Christ.
A color picture of Jesus Christ hung on the wall with the prettiest paper flowers fastened on its frame.

41. What final insult did Geraldine scream at Pecola as she left?

A. Get out, fool
B. Nasty little black bitch
C. Ugly thing
D. Stealer of cats

B. Nasty little black bitch.
Geraldine, holding the dead cat, quietly but coldly told Pecola to leave her house using this insult.

42. What did Claudia and Frieda’s father use to beat Mr. Henry?

A. A gun
B. A broom
C. Their old tricycle
D. His fists

C. Their old tricycle.
When Mr. Henry came onto the porch, Daddy threw their old tricycle at his head, knocking him off.

43. Why was Frieda crying after the incident with Mr. Henry?

A. She feared the police
B. Worrying about being ruined
C. Her mother whipped her
D. She missed Mr. Henry

B. Worrying about being ruined.
Miss Dunion suggested Frieda might be ruined, causing Frieda to cry because she worried about becoming like the Maginot Line.

44. Pauline blamed her feeling of separateness and unworthiness on what physical detail?

A. Her missing tooth
B. Her black skin
C. Crooked, archless foot
D. Her thick lips

C. Crooked, archless foot.
Pauline’s minor deformity, caused by a rusty nail, became the primary explanation for her feeling of difference.

45. What happened to Pauline that ended her desire to emulate Jean Harlow?

A. She gained weight
B. Cholly hit her
C. Lost her front tooth
D. She cut her hair

C. Lost her front tooth.
While pregnant, Pauline bit into candy at the picture show, and it pulled her front tooth out.

46. What destructive idea, learned from movies, did Pauline equate with virtue?

A. Romantic love
B. Physical beauty
C. Cleanliness
D. Financial success

B. Physical beauty.
Along with romantic love, Pauline was introduced to “physical beauty,” which she equated with virtue.

47. How did a doctor describe black women delivering babies in front of Pauline?

A. Painlessly and fast
B. Deliver like horses
C. Tough and quick
D. Quietly

B. Deliver like horses.
The old doctor told the young ones that “these here women you don’t have any trouble with… Just like horses”.

48. What did Cholly hate Darlene for after the incident with the white men?

A. Her silence
B. Witnessing his impotence
C. Her crying
D. Running away

B. Witnessing his impotence.
Cholly hated Darlene because she was the witness to his total failure and humiliation in front of the armed white men.

49. What was Soaphead Church’s profession?

A. Minister
B. Psychiatrist
C. Interpreter of Dreams
D. Lawyer

C. Interpreter of Dreams.
Soaphead finally settled on the profession of “Reader, Adviser, and Interpreter of Dreams,” which gave him satisfaction.

50. What specific miracle did Pecola request from Soaphead Church?

A. Happiness
B. To be loved
C. New blue eyes
D. Money

C. New blue eyes.
Pecola held out the card and asked Soaphead Church specifically, “I want them blue,” like she was buying shoes.

Brief Overview

The Bluest Eye is a novel by Toni Morrison, first published in 1970. The novel powerfully examines the destructive influence of white beauty standards, racism, and internalized self-hatred on the Black American community.

The novel tells the very sad story of a little Black girl named Pecola Breedlove. Pecola lives in Lorain, Ohio, and her family is extremely poor and fractured.

Pecola internalizes the message that she is ugly because she is Black. She only sees beauty reflected in white standards, particularly blue-eyed dolls and images of white actresses. She prays every single night for beautiful, blue eyes.

Pecola briefly stays with two sisters, Claudia and Frieda. Pecola’s home life is terrible, and her parents frequently fight. Her father, Cholly, sexually abuses her when he is drunk. Pecola becomes pregnant by her own father.

Claudia and Frieda worry about Pecola and the unborn baby. They desperately hope for a miracle, so they plant marigold seeds, hoping the growth of the flowers will be a sign of hope. The seeds die, and the baby also dies.

Pecola finds an escape in madness. She starts to believe she finally has the blue eyes she always wished for. The narrator concludes that Pecola tragically absorbed the misery and waste of the world around her, and the very land seemed unwilling to nurture life or hope for Pecola.