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”.

Song of Solomon MCQs

1. Why did Mr. Robert Smith plan to fly from Mercy Hospital?

A. Forgiveness
B. Escape route
C. Seeking fame
D. Insurance sale

A. Forgiveness.
He posted a note on his door asking for forgiveness before attempting his flight at three o’clock on Wednesday.

2. What was the post office name for Not Doctor Street?

A. Mercy Avenue
B. Mains Avenue
C. Rutherford Way
D. Shore Road

B. Mains Avenue.
Town maps officially registered the street as Mains Avenue, though local residents kept calling it Doctor Street.

3. What item did the pregnant lady drop during the commotion?

A. Silk garment
B. Silver earring
C. Covered basket
D. Yellow receipt

C. Covered basket.
The doctor’s daughter dropped her covered peck basket, causing red velvet rose petals to spill onto the snow.

4. What name did the post office workers send returned envelopes to?

A. Dead Letter Office
B. No Mercy Hospital
C. Mains Avenue
D. Southside town

A. Dead Letter Office.
Post office workers often returned envelopes addressed to Doctor Street or sent them to the Dead Letter Office.

5. What was the little boy named, according to the nurse’s inquiry?

A. Cat-eyed child
B. Robert Smith
C. Guitar Bains
D. Macon Dead

C. Guitar Bains.
When the nurse pointed to him, the stout woman replied that the cat-eyed boy’s name was Guitar.

6. What financial object did customers guard carefully regarding Mr. Smith?

A. Rent receipts
B. Yellow payment cards
C. Marriage documents
D. Cash money

B. Yellow payment cards.
Customers held on tightly to the little yellow cards used to record their insurance premium payments.

7. What did the singing woman say about the expected baby’s time?

A. Coming too soon
B. Right on time
C. Tomorrow morning
D. Cannot happen

B. Right on time.
The singing woman told the pregnant lady that the delivery was not too soon but was right on time.

8. What specific feature made Milkman lose interest in himself at four?

A. His short leg
B. Inability to fly
C. His odd name
D. His velvet suit

B. Inability to fly.
At four, he learned that only birds and airplanes could fly, making his inability to fly a saddening realization.

9. What objects did Lena and Corinthians sit making in the parlor?

A. Blood-red velvet
B. Sunshine yellow cake
C. Knit navy caps
D. Linen napkins

A. Blood-red velvet.
His sisters, Lena and Corinthians, spent hours tracing, cutting, and stitching scraps of red velvet to make roses.

10. What item on the dining room table symbolised Ruth’s mooring?

A. Silver tea set
B. Water floor mark
C. Fine linen cloth
D. Mahogany table

B. Water floor mark.
The cloudy gray water mark on the table served as a mooring or checkpoint for Ruth, assuring her the world existed.

11. Who interrupted Ruth while she was nursing her son in the green room?

A. Macon Dead
B. Guitar Bains
C. Freddie janitor
D. Lena Dead

C. Freddie janitor.
Freddie the janitor, coming to pay his rent, looked in the window and saw Ruth nursing her son.

12. What unflattering nickname did Macon Dead’s son acquire?

A. Cat-eyed boy
B. Peculiar child
C. Milkman’s name
D. Deep one

C. Milkman’s name.
Due to the incident seen by Freddie, Macon Dead’s son acquired the nickname Milkman, which stuck.

13. What was Pilate Dead wearing in her left earlobe?

A. Snuff container
B. Brass metal box
C. Gold shiny nugget
D. Mother’s ribbon

B. Brass metal box.
Pilate wore a tiny piece of paper containing her name, folded inside a little brass box, strung through her earlobe.

14. What was Macon Dead Sr.’s name written on his Freedmen’s Bureau registration?

A. Macon Dead
B. Dead, Macon
C. Dead, Junior
D. Macon Foster

B. Dead, Macon.
A drunken Yankee clerk wrote “Dead” comma “Macon” in the space for his name, resulting in the family surname.

15. What kind of car did the Dead family take on ritual Sunday drives?

A. Dodge sedan
B. Packard car
C. Buick model
D. Oldsmobile vehicle

B. Packard car.
The Dead family took their ritual Sunday afternoon drives in a large, smooth-running Packard automobile.

16. What physical item did Pilate lack that convinced some she was unnatural?

A. Single earring
B. Belly button
C. Woven shawl
D. Knit cap

B. Belly button.
Pilate was born without a navel, which convinced many people that she had not come into the world normally.

17. What item did Guitar say Pilate’s house smelled strongly of?

A. Pine and fruit
B. Bacon and meat
C. Dirt and dust
D. Soap and water

A. Pine and fruit.
The pervading odor in Pilate’s house was that of pine and fermenting fruit, described as being narcotic.

18. How was Pilate’s father (Macon Dead Sr.) killed, according to her memory?

A. Shot on the fence
B. Stabbed in a cave
C. Sliced in mill
D. Fell from roof

A. Shot on fence.
Pilate remembered that her father was killed by being shot while sitting on his fence, blowing him five feet into the air.

19. What did Reba win because she was the half-millionth person at Sears and Roebuck?

A. Cash prize
B. Diamond ring
C. Brand new car
D. Television set

B. Diamond ring.
Reba won a diamond ring attached to a string for being the half-millionth person to walk into Sears.

20. Why did Guitar say he could not eat sweets or sugary food?

A. Sugar diabetes
B. Makes him sick
C. Think of dead
D. Think of white

C. Think of dead.
Guitar explained that sweets made him think of dead people and white people, which caused nausea.

21. What was Macon Dead’s job or primary business?

A. Insurance agent
B. Real estate
C. Pool hall owner
D. Coal miner

B. Real estate.
Macon Dead was a property owner and landlord, working in the business of real estate.

22. What defect did Milkman notice about himself when he was fourteen years old?

A. Cat-eyes
B. Shorter leg
C. Bad hearing
D. Skin complexion

B. Shorter leg.
When Milkman was fourteen, he noticed that one of his legs was shorter than the other one.

23. What substance did Macon Dead accuse Ruth’s father of sniffing?

A. Rye whiskey
B. Sniffed ether
C. Paint fumes
D. Tobacco juice

B. Sniffed ether.
Macon told Milkman that Ruth’s father was a hypocrite who secretly sniffed ether.

24. What act did Milkman commit that stunned his father and made the relationship worse?

A. Stole cash
B. Hit his father
C. Insulted Pilate
D. Refused job

B. Hit his father.
Milkman caused his father to be shocked and crumpled by jumping up and hitting him into the radiator.

25. What was Macon’s primary advice to Milkman for success in the world?

A. Go to college
B. Own property
C. Be honorable
D. Work hard

B. Own property.
Macon advised Milkman that the only important thing to know was to own things.

26. What did Milkman remember seeing that led to the nickname “Milkman”?

A. Saw a cow
B. Had a dream
C. Freddie laughing
D. Mother nursing

D. Mother nursing.
Milkman remembered a moment of his mother nursing him as a child, followed by laughter, linking to his nickname.

27. What major national news event were the men discussing in Tommy’s Barbershop?

A. World War II
B. Assassination plot
C. Emmet Till case
D. Stock market crash

C. Emmet Till case.
The men in the barbershop were discussing the murder of a young Negro boy named Till in Mississippi.

28. What musical quality characterized Pilate’s singing voice?

A. Powerful contralto
B. Sweet soprano
C. High tenor
D. Gravel sprinkled

A. Powerful contralto.
The singing woman, Pilate, was noted for her powerful contralto voice when she sang in front of Mercy Hospital.

29. What was the main reason Hagar became determined to kill Milkman?

A. Thank-you note
B. Her old age
C. Another girl
D. Her poverty

C. Another girl.
Hagar’s rage was triggered by seeing Milkman with another girl whose silky copper-colored hair cascaded over his coat.

30. What was the nickname of the society Guitar belonged to?

A. The Seven Days
B. The Black Shadows
C. The Assassins
D. The Watchmen

A. The Seven Days.
The guitar belonged to a secret society of seven men who enacted vengeful killings called the Seven Days.

31. What was Guitar’s designated day for carrying out the society’s work?

A. Monday day
B. Wednesday day
C. Saturday day
D. Sunday day

D. Sunday day.
Guitar revealed to Milkman that he was the Sunday man in the Seven Days society.

32. What physical feature did the white peacock have that made Guitar comment on vanity?

A. Too much tail
B. White feathers
C. Loud call
D. Slow flight

A. Too much tail.
Guitar observed that the peacock couldn’t fly well because of too much tail, comparing it to vanity.

33. What was Pilate reading when Milkman came to her house right before the attempted theft?

A. Newspaper copy
B. Holy Bible
C. Geography book
D. Cook recipe book

C. Geography book.
Pilate was reading a fourth-grade geography book when Milkman arrived, before the gold sack theft.

34. Where did Guitar say Northerners were picky about the “trappings” of food?

A. The pots
B. The water temperature
C. The food flavor
D. The ingredients

A. The pots.
Guitar claimed that Northerners were picky about the “trappings,” specifically mentioning the cooking pots and related items.

35. What item did Milkman complain he bumped his head on inside Pilate’s house?

A. Chandelier
B. Sink
C. Green cloth sack
D. Stool

C. Green cloth sack.
Milkman said he was tall enough to bump his head on the green sack hanging from Pilate’s ceiling.

36. What substance was inside the bags that Macon and Pilate found in the cave?

A. Dirt
B. Silver
C. Bones
D. Gold nuggets

D. Gold nuggets.
Macon described shaking gold nuggets from the bags they found in the cave, revealing the hidden treasure.

37. Why did Pilate refuse to take the bags of money from the cave initially?

A. It was stolen
B. Too heavy
C. Feared capture
D. It was dangerous

C. Feared capture.
Pilate argued that taking the money was stealing and would confirm to pursuers that they killed the man for profit.

38. What item did Milkman use to cut the wire holding the green sack?

A. His knife
B. A razor
C. Pincers
D. A saw

A. His knife.
Milkman used his knife to cut the wire holding the green sack after realizing they lacked proper wire cutters.

39. How much gold did Macon offer Milkman if he retrieved the sack?

A. A fortune
B. Half of it
C. Twenty percent
D. All of it

B. Half of it.
Macon promised Milkman that if he retrieved the gold, Milkman could keep half of it.

40. What was Corinthians’ actual job title for Michael-Mary Graham?

A. Amanuensis
B. Secretary
C. Maid
D. Teacher

C. Maid.
Despite Ruth calling her amanuensis, Corinthians was employed as a maid (or cleaner) for Miss Graham.

41. What object did Porter use to pry the top off a bottle of Coca-Cola for Milkman?

A. His mouth
B. A knife
C. A can opener
D. A door sill

A. His mouth.
The man (Porter, implied) took the bottle and pried the top off using his mouth.

42. What profession did Corinthians believe her parents intended her to marry into?

A. Lawyer
B. Teacher
C. Businessman
D. Professional man

D. Professional man.
Her family hoped Corinthians would marry a professional man of color, such as a physician.

43. What was Henry Porter doing when Corinthians saw him in the attic?

A. Sleeping
B. Urinating
C. Screaming
D. Drinking

B. Urinating.
Porter was in the attic screaming, weeping, waving a shotgun, and urinating over the heads of the women.

44. What did Macon Dead admit he used to secure Milkman’s release from the police?

A. His wallet
B. His reputation
C. Pilate’s lie
D. A lawyer

A. His wallet.
Milkman asserted that Macon only secured their release by opening his wallet and paying the polìcemen.

45. What smell, following the awful odor, charmed Milkman at the Butler mansion?

A. Pine needles
B. Sweet perfume
C. Gunpowder
D. Cedar wood

B. Sweet perfume.
The awful animal smell was suddenly replaced by a sweet spicy perfume like ginger root, which Milkman found seductive.

46. What did the children in Shalimar sing that sounded like Pilate’s song lyric?

A. Solomon don’t
B. Jay the son
C. Heddy took him
D. Black lady

A. Solomon don’t.
The children sang “Solomon don’t leave me here,” a variation of Pilate’s song lyric, “Sugarman don’t leave me here”.

47. What creature was the hunter Calvin tracking in the Virginia woods?

A. Deer
B. Wild turkey
C. Bobcat
D. Gray squirrel

C. Bobcat.
Calvin identified the dogs’ signal and became agitated, calling out that they were tracking a bobcat.

48. What was Milkman’s great-grandfather’s (Jake’s father) original name, according to Shalimar legend?

A. Jake
B. Solomon
C. Crowell
D. Sugarman

A. Brass box.
Pilate pulled her earring off, splitting her lobe, and placed the brass box into the grave with her father’s bones.

50. What object did Pilate use to strike Milkman on the head when he returned home from the South?

A. A shoe
B. Wet green bottle
C. Iron skillet
D. Rolling pin

B. Wet green bottle.
When Milkman greeted Pilate, she broke a wet green bottle over his head, knocking him out.

Brief Overview

Song of Solomon is a novel by Toni Morrison, published in 1977. The novel is a complex coming-of-age story centered on a Black American man’s physical and spiritual journey to find his family history, identity, and cultural roots.

The novel starts in 1931 with the birth of Milkman Dead in Michigan, which is marked by a man attempting to fly from a hospital roof. Milkman’s father, Macon Dead, is rich but cruel, and he forbids Milkman from seeing his strange aunt, Pilate Dead.

Milkman eventually falls in love with his cousin Hagar. When Milkman leaves her, Hagar often tries to kill him in a fit of rage. Milkman and his friend Guitar Bains plan to steal gold that Macon believes Pilate has hidden. Guitar is secretly part of a vigilante group called the Seven Days, who kill white people in retaliation for racial violence.

Milkman travels to Pennsylvania to find the gold in a cave, but it is gone. He meets Circe, an old woman who knew his father and aunt. Milkman realizes that the gold hunt led him directly to the truth about his family’s past.

He travels to Shalimar, Virginia. Children there sing a rhyme about his great-grandfather, Solomon, who flew away to Africa, dropping his son Jake (Macon’s father). Solomon’s wife, Ryna, cried for him in a gulch named for her.

Guitar follows Milkman, thinking Milkman stole the gold. Milkman tells Pilate that the bones she carries are those of her father, Jake. When they bury the bones in Shalimar, Guitar shoots and kills Pilate. Milkman then leaps toward Guitar, realizing that if he surrendered to the air, he too could fly.