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, NY
B. Lorain, Ohio
C. Washington, D.C.
D. Syracuse, NY

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

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 ‘Toni’ (from her confirmation name, Anthony) in 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 story about a black girl wishing for blue eyes became her 1970 debut novel.

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

A. Home (2012)
B. Love (2003)
C. God Help the Child (2015)
D. A Mercy (2008)

C. God Help the Child (2015)
This novel, published in 2015, was her final novel.

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. First black woman to chair at an Ivy League
B. Wrote interracial bestsellers
C. Created a black literary language
D. Was a Random House editor

C. Created a black literary language
Her aesthetic 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 draw 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 reflects the magical, mythical, and 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
Toni Morrison earned her B.A. in English from Howard University, a historically Black university (HBCU) located in Washington, D.C.

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.

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.

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

A. Baldwin and Wright
B. Ellison and Hurston
C. Faulkner and Woolf
D. Brown and Locke

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

15. What 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 this mass movement of African Americans.

16. Which grandparent’s life inspired her novel Song of Solomon?

A. John Solomon Willis (maternal)
B. George Wofford (paternal)
C. Ardelia Willis (maternal)
D. George and Ramah Wofford (parents)

A. Her maternal grandfather, John Solomon Willis.
The novel’s character searches for his great-grandfather, named Solomon.

17. Where did Morrison first work 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 her divorce.

18. Toni Morrison left Random House in what year?

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

C. 1983
She left 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?

A. A historically black college (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 at Princeton University, starting in 1989.

20. What non-fiction work did Morrison publish in 1992?

A. The Black Book
B. Dreaming Emmett
C. Playing in the Dark
D. A Mercy

C. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
This essay collection explores the role 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 black culture/belonging
C. Escape from Eurocentrism
D. Financial success in literature

B. A record of gesture and custom and being and belonging
This quote emphasizes her role in preserving and affirming black culture.

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 in Beloved?

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

C. The unthinkable
She explored the deepest psychological traumas of slavery.

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 defined by suffering

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

25. What did Morrison’s parents do for a living?

A. Father (farmer), mother (teacher)
B. Father (welder), mother (choir)
C. Father (sharecropper), mother (homemaker)
D. Parents (academics)

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 introduced the ambivalent main character 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 roots.

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

A. The multiculturalism of Lorain
B. Her parents’ contrasting racial views
C. The women of the black community
D. Her integrated education

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

28. Which novel, influenced by her father’s death, tells the myth of slaves who fly to Africa?

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

C. Song of Solomon
This 1977 novel is dedicated to her father and famously features the myth of the flying African.

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

A. The life of an emancipated slave
B. A girl who desires blue eyes
C. A Caribbean island relationship
D. 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?

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

C. Margaret Garner
Inspired by the real-life story of an enslaved woman who killed her daughter to prevent her return to slavery.

31. In the dedication of Beloved, “sixty million and more” refers to whom?

A. The children of Lorain
B. The victims of slavery
C. The victims of infanticide
D. Those lost in the Great Migration

B. The victims of two centuries of slavery
This acknowledges the uncounted lives lost to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery.

32. What 1974 “folk journey of Black America” did Toni Morrison compile?

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 research for The Black Book provide for Morrison’s later fiction?

A. Financial security
B. A cache of motifs, themes, images
C. Her first TV interview
D. Motivation to leave Random House

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

34. Which novel is primarily set 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 all-black town of Ruby, Oklahoma?

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, Toni Morrison was known for developing 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
She helped bring black authors (like Angela Davis) to mainstream publishing.

37. What two cultural elements did Morrison draw upon, making her work “fluid and lyrical”?

A. Jazz and European classics
B. 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.

38. According to Angela Davis, what did Morrison teach the world to imagine about enslaved people?

A. Their journey to the North
B. Their complex inner lives
C. 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 The Bluest Eye to?

A. Critical acclaim
B. Company wanted a black writer
C. The compelling subject matter
D. Its inclusion in Redbook

B. The company wanted a black writer in its stable (racial reasons).
She believed her race made her attractive to publishers in that era.

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

A. Avoided it for the South
B. An escape from stereotyped settings
C. Criticized Lorain’s racism
D. Used it only for early 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 concentrated on which two authors?

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

C. William Faulkner and Virginia Woolf
Her thesis analyzed the theme of the marginalized outsider in their work.

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 and rhythm of the black oral tradition.

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 was nominated in 1975.

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

A. The Nobel Prize
B. Presidential Medal of Freedom
C. 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, Morrison wrote a dramatization about the murder of Emmett Till. What was its title?

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 primary theme did Morrison explore in Beloved related to slavery?

A. Psychological effects of racism
B. The paradox of motherhood
C. 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.

47. Critic Nellie Y. McKay compared Morrison’s control of inner dialogue to which authors?

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

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

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

A. I will return soon.
B. “You take the village with you”
C. I will find a new community.
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 reflects her belief that black culture is internalized and transportable.

49. Morrison’s ability to draw 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 the art of empowering black subjectivities as inherently political.

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”.

Sula MCQs

1. In what year did National Suicide Day first take place?

A. 1920
B. 1917
C. 1919
D. 1921

A. 1920.
The celebration of National Suicide Day began every January third starting in 1920, founded by Shadrack.

2. What visible physical sensation did Shadrack first notice during the battle in France?

A. Exploding shellfire
B. Taste of lipstick
C. Bite of a nail
D. Soldier’s death

C. Bite of a nail.
Shadrack first felt only the pain of a nail in his boot, which pierced the ball of his foot.

3. Which primary body part did Shadrack see fly off a nearby soldier?

A. The soldier’s arm
B. The soldier’s face
C. The soldier’s foot
D. The soldier’s chest

B. The soldier’s face.
He saw the face of a soldier near him fly off before the rest of the head disappeared.

4. What colors of food were contained in the divided tray that soothed Shadrack in the hospital?

A. Blue, green, gold
B. White, red, brown
C. Gray, yellow, black
D. Meat, rice, tomatoes

B. White, red, brown.
The neat balance of the triangles contained the lumpy whiteness of rice, red tomatoes, and grayish-brown meat.

5. Why did Shadrack scream and thrust his hands under the covers while in the hospital?

A. The nurse frightened him
B. They began to grow
C. He spilled the food
D. They started itching

B. They began to grow.
His fingers started to grow “higgledy-piggledy fashion” like a beanstalk over the tray and bed.

6. Why was Shadrack grateful when bound in a straitjacket?

A. It stopped the pain
B. It hid his hands
C. To stop the yelling
D. He felt powerful

B. It hid his hands.
He was relieved and grateful because his perceived monstrous hands were at last confined and hidden.

7. What did Shadrack see in the toilet water that astonished and reassured him?

A. His young reflection
B. A grave black face
C. The water was dark
D. Floating hair

B. A grave black face.
He saw a “grave black face,” a definite and unequivocal blackness that confirmed he was real.

8. How far was Shadrack from Medallion when he was arrested for vagrancy?

A. Forty-five miles
B. Across the valley
C. Twenty-two miles
D. Fifty miles away

C. Twenty-two miles.
The sheriff informed Shadrack that he had only been twenty-two miles from Medallion.

9. What did Shadrack use to call people together for National Suicide Day?

A. A loud horn
B. A hangman’s rope
C. A tin cowbell
D. Rope and cowbell

D. Rope and cowbell.
On the third day of the new year, he walked with a cowbell and a hangman’s rope.

10. What was the name of the house in New Orleans where Helene was born?

A. Cecile’s house
B. Creole House
C. Sundown House
D. Red Shutters

C. Sundown House.
Helene was born behind the red shutters of the Sundown House, where her mother was a whore.

11. What was Helene’s husband, Wiley Wright,’s occupation?

A. Army soldier
B. Ship’s cook
C. Lake fisherman
D. Carpenter

B. Ship’s cook.
Wiley Wright was a seaman, specifically a ship’s cook on one of the Great Lakes lines.

12. What feature of Nel’s appearance did Helene plan to “improve somewhat”?

A. Her dark skin
B. Her generous lips
C. Her long lashes
D. Her broad flat nose

D. Her broad flat nose.
Helene planned to “improve somewhat” Nel’s broad flat nose, which she had inherited from Wiley.

13. What new social practice did Helene establish in the Medallion black church?

A. Seasonal altar flowers
B. Banning latecomers
C. Prayer meetings
D. Strict dress codes

A. Seasonal altar flowers.
Helene introduced the practice of seasonal altar flowers and banquets for returning Negro veterans.

14. Why did Helene agree to go South to New Orleans?

A. See the city
B. Mr. Henri Martin
C. Grandmother’s illness
D. To avoid Medallion

C. Grandmother’s illness.
She read a letter from Mr. Henri Martin describing her grandmother’s illness, pleading for her presence.

15. What was the white conductor’s first action before addressing Helene on the train?

A. Checked tickets
B. Jiggled ear wax
C. Slammed the door
D. Asked her name

B. Jiggled ear wax.
The conductor let his eyes travel over Helene, then stuck his small finger into his ear, jiggling it.

16. What emotion did Nel sense the black soldiers felt toward her mother after the smiling incident?

A. Deep adoration
B. Contained pity
C. Bubbling hatred
D. Mild confusion

C. Bubbling hatred.
Nel sensed the black soldiers were “bubbling with a hatred” for her mother, born with the dazzling smile.

17. What did Nel fear might be lurking under her mother’s elegant brown dress?

A. Loose jewelry
B. Custard-colored skin
C. Undone hooks
D. Her mother’s belt

B. Custard-colored skin.
Nel feared that the hooks were undone, exposing the “custard-colored skin underneath” the dress.

18. After Birmingham, where did Helene and Nel have to relieve themselves on the trip?

A. Behind the depot
B. In a field
C. Behind the trees
D. Meridian

B. In a field.
At Meridian, Ellisville, and Hattiesburg, they squatted in a field of high grass.

19. What was hanging on the door of Cecile Sabat’s house in New Orleans?

A. Red shutters
B. A black crepe wreath
C. A Virgin Mary
D. A gold ribbon

B. A black crepe wreath.
Cecile Sabat’s house sported a black crepe wreath with purple ribbon, signaling they were too late.

20. Who did Nel meet that smelled like gardenias in the New Orleans house?

A. Cecile Sabat
B. Henri Martin
C. Her grandmother
D. Helene’s mother

C. Her grandmother.
Nel’s grandmother (Helene’s mother), Rochelle, came out of the garden and carried the sweet gardenia smell.

21. When Nel returned to Medallion, what was her desire regarding her own future?

A. To leave Medallion
B. To be wonderful
C. To make friends
D. To obey mother

B. To be wonderful.
Nel murmured, “I want…I want to be…wonderful,” after discovering her self-identity.

22. Who was Sula’s mother?

A. Cecile
B. Rochelle
C. Hannah
D. Eva

C. Hannah.
Sula was the daughter of Hannah, who was Eva Peace’s eldest child, connecting the novel’s central families.

23. What was the name of Sula’s deceased father?

A. BoyBoy
B. Rekus
C. Plum
D. Wiley

B. Rekus.
Hannah married a laughing man named Rekus, who died when Sula was about three years old.

24. What characterized the three adopted boys Eva Peace named Dewey?

A. Deeply black
B. All were cousins
C. They were inseparable
D. Shared gold eyes

C. They were inseparable.
The three boys joined to become a trinity, “inseparable, loving nothing and no one but themselves”.

25. Where did Hannah often engage in lovemaking due to the crowded house?

A. In the attic
B. The front porch
C. The pantry or cellar
D. Eva’s room

C. The pantry or cellar.
Hannah would take men down into the cellar or step into the pantry against the shelves.

26. What object did Hannah find that confirmed Plum’s drug addiction after he returned from war?

A. Army papers
B. A black bag
C. A bent spoon
D. Empty bottles

C. A bent spoon.
Hannah found a bent spoon that was black from “steady cooking,” indicating drug use.

27. What liquid did Eva soak Plum with before lighting him on fire?

A. Strawberry crush
B. Kerosene
C. Warm water
D. Alcohol

B. Kerosene.
Eva rolled up newspaper, lit it, and threw it onto the bed where the kerosene-soaked Plum lay.

28. What was the name of the ice-cream parlor frequented by Nel and Sula?

A. Reba’s Grill
B. Mellow House
C. Elmira Theater
D. Time Pool Hall

B. Mellow House.
Nel and Sula were on their way to Edna Finch’s Mellow House, an ice-cream parlor.

29. What compliment did Ajax give Nel and Sula as they passed the pool hall?

A. Nice dresses
B. Pig meat
C. Sweet girls
D. Pretty women

B. Pig meat.
Ajax, a twenty-one-year-old pool haunt, softly but definitively called them “Pig meat”.

30. What object shaped like a stemmed rose featured over Sula’s eye?

A. A small scratch
B. Her birthmark
C. A small scar
D. A blood vessel

B. Her birthmark.
Sula had a birthmark spreading from her eyelid toward the eyebrow, shaped “something like a stemmed rose”.

31. How did Sula stop the white boys from harassing Nel on Carpenter’s Road?

A. She yelled threats
B. Threatened the boys
C. Cut off her finger
D. Called the police

C. Cut off her finger.
Sula pulled out Eva’s paring knife and deliberately slashed off the tip of her left forefinger.

32. What was the name of the boy Sula accidentally swung into the river?

A. Rudy
B. Chicken Little
C. John L
D. BoyBoy

B. Chicken Little.
Sula picked up the boy named Chicken Little, swung him, and he slipped into the water.

33. Who did Nel suspect saw the drowning incident from the opposite shore?

A. Shadrack
B. The bargeman
C. Ajax
D. Eva

A. Shadrack.
Nel noted that a figure appeared briefly on the opposite shore, and the only house there was Shadrack’s.

34. What word did Nel repeat constantly during Chicken Little’s funeral?

A. Sweet Jesus
B. Convicted
C. Done nothing
D. Always

C. Done nothing.
Nel felt convicted and hanged, even though she knew she had “done nothing” to cause the death.

35. What was the women’s collective feeling that demanded loud expression at the funeral?

A. Stupidity of loss
B. Fear of God
C. Renewed faith
D. Joy of survival

A. Stupidity of loss.
The women expressed outrage and despair, believing that the “stupidity of loss” could not pass unrecorded.

36. After Hannah’s death, what object did Eva associate with the fire dream?

A. The mason jars
B. A red gown
C. Soft scrambled eggs
D. Kentucky Wonders

B. A red gown.
Eva remembered her dream of a wedding in a red bridal gown, concluding that the red was the fire.

37. Who was the handsome bridegroom Nel married in 1927?

A. Tar Baby
B. Wiley Wright
C. Jude Greene
D. Ajax

C. Jude Greene.
Nel married Jude Greene, the tenor of Mount Zion’s Men’s Quartet, in 1927.

38. How long was it before Nel and Sula saw each other again after the wedding?

A. Five years
B. Ten years
C. Eighteen months
D. Two years

B. Ten years.
Sula left after the wedding, and it would be ten years before she and Nel saw each other again.

39. What did the people of the Bottom primarily value regarding Jude’s affair with Sula?

A. Jude’s vanity
B. Their own marriages
C. Sula’s intentions
D. Their husbands’ pride

B. Their own marriages.
The women cherished their men more and soothed their pride, using Sula’s actions to justify their relationships.

40. What was the most damning evidence the townswomen found against Sula?

A. She stole men
B. She slept with white men
C. Shadrack saluted her
D. She lacked scars

C. Shadrack saluted her.
Dessie’s story about Shadrack tipping his invisible hat to Sula was viewed as definitive evidence of evil.

41. What did Sula realize about her friendships with men as she traveled?

A. They were comrades
B. They were too complex
C. A lover was not a comrade
D. They were only friends

C. A lover was not a comrade.
She discovered that a lover was not a comrade and could never be one for a woman.

42. What did Nel think Sula’s observation about “Hell” was?

A. Misery lasts
B. Things lasting forever
C. Nothing matters
D. Loneliness

B. Things lasting forever.
Nel recalled Sula saying, “The real hell of Hell is that it is forever,” meaning lasting forever was hell.

43. What did Nel eventually conclude was the true nature of Hell?

A. Loss and misery
B. Isolation from Sula
C. Constant change
D. Bad memories

C. Constant change.
Nel realized that Sula was wrong, concluding that “Hell is change,” because even misery doesn’t last.

44. What possession did Jude leave behind that Nel fixated on after he departed?

A. His job
B. His new shoes
C. His tie
D. His car keys

C. His tie.
Jude walked out, but he left behind his tie hanging over the top of the closet door.

45. What was Ajax’s real, documented name?

A. Pretty Johnnie
B. Tar Baby
C. Albert Jacks
D. John L

C. Albert Jacks.
Sula discovered on his driver’s license that his name was Albert Jacks, which he shortened to A. Jacks.

46. What was Sula’s dying realization about her relationship with Hannah’s death?

A. She was interested
B. She meant nothing
C. She should have cried
D. She was terrified

B. She meant nothing.
Sula reflected that she “never meant anything” when she stood watching Hannah burn, and was thrilled.

47. What gave Sula peace while she was dying in bed?

A. Nel’s presence
B. Her medicine
C. The boarded-up window
D. Ajax’s memory

C. The boarded-up window.
The sealed, boarded-up window that Eva had jumped out of soothed Sula with its sturdy finality and termination.

48. What was Sula’s final thought just as she realized she was dead?

A. I am free
B. Wait’ll I tell Nel
C. I am wonderful
D. Always

B. Wait’ll I tell Nel.
Sula smiled, thinking, “it didn’t even hurt. Wait’ll I tell Nel,” unaware Nel was gone.

49. What construction project was seen by the Bottom people as a sign of hope after Sula’s death?

A. A new road
B. The river bridge
C. The tunnel
D. New housing

C. The tunnel.
The rumor that the tunnel spanning the river would finally use Negro workers brought great hope to the community.

50. As she walked away from the cemetery in 1965, what object broke and scattered around Nel?

A. A dandelion spore
B. Gray fur ball
C. A lilac bush
D. Muddy strings

B. Gray fur ball.
The gray ball of fur and string that had haunted her broke and scattered like dandelion spores.

Brief Overview

Sula is a novel by Toni Morrison, published in 1973. It is a powerful narrative set in the Black town of Medallion, Ohio. The novel centers on the intense friendship between two women, Nel Wright and Sula Peace, and critically examines themes of female identity, community judgment, and the nature of good and evil.

The story follows the two friends from the 1920s to the 1960s. A war veteran named Shadrack begins “National Suicide Day” every January third, intending to help people confront their fear of sudden death.

Nel grows up in an orderly home, while Sula lives in a large, chaotic house with her grandmother, Eva. Eva had previously burned her son, Plum, alive to end his misery from drug addiction.

As girls, Nel and Sula share a critical, hidden secret: Sula accidentally swung a boy named Chicken Little into the river, where he drowned. Nel watched it happen. Nel later married Jude Greene.

Sula left Medallion but returned after ten years. She was quickly labeled as evil by the townspeople. Sula was scared of Eva and had her sent to an old folks’ home. Sula then slept with Jude, Nel’s husband, and Jude immediately left town.

Sula grew sick and died alone. Her death brought the townspeople a great sense of relief. Soon after, many people died in a tunnel collapse during Shadrack’s Suicide Day parade.

Years later, Nel visited Eva, who revealed the devastating truth that Nel was also guilty of the drowning because she merely “watched.” Nel finally realizes she had missed Sula, her lost friend, all those years, not her ex-husband Jude. Nel cries for the broken bond of their friendship.