Free American Literature MCQs with Answers
222 American Literature MCQs from English Literature, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.
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- A. Weasel.
- B. Bear.
- C. The farmer.
- D. The young boy.
Explanation: Weasel relies on cunning, deception, and manipulation rather than physical strength, which are the defining traits of a trickster figure.
Correct answer: Weasel.- A. The poem is the first-known writing of an African American.
- B. The poem is better than the poems of the more famous Phillis Wheatley.
- C. The poem is the first of many poems by Terry.
- D. The poetry focuses on slave life in the 18th century.Read Classic Poetry
Explanation: “Bars Fight,” composed in 1746, is regarded as the earliest known poem by an African American.
Correct answer: The poem is the first-known writing of an African American.- A. Her relationship with a patron.
- B. Her mother.
- C. Her best friend.
- D. Her job as a waitress.
Explanation: Delia’s characterization was influenced by Hurston’s relationship with a patron, reflecting the unequal and pressuring relationships that…
Correct answer: Her relationship with a patron.- A. She is one-quarter Black.
- B. She is one-eighth Black.
- C. She is White.
- D. She cannot be a slave.
Explanation: Quadroon was a historical racial term for a person with one Black grandparent, meaning one-quarter Black ancestry.
Correct answer: She is one-quarter Black.- A. That female slaves were escaping more frequently than men.
- B. How slavery was worse for men.
- C. How females were affected by slavery.
- D. That female slaves were more valuable than male slaves.
Explanation: Jacobs presents slavery through the particular experiences of enslaved women, including sexual exploitation, threatened motherhood, and…
Correct answer: How females were affected by slavery.- A. The mistress of the house was afraid her husband would be attracted to Clotel.
- B. To keep the lice away.
- C. So that the other slaves would get along with her.
- D. So she could sell it.Books & Literature
Explanation: Clotel’s long hair attracted unwanted attention from the mistress’s husband, so the jealous mistress ordered it cut.
Correct answer: The mistress of the house was afraid her husband would be attracted to Clotel.- A. Women's rights.
- B. Negro rights.
- C. The right to keep one's children.
- D. A and B.
- E. The rights of farm hands.
Explanation: The speech joins the causes of women's rights and Black rights, showing that Black women suffer both racial and gender oppression.
Correct answer: A and B.- A. W.E.B. DuBois
- B. Amiri Baraka
- C. Booker T. Washington
- D. Frederick Douglass
Explanation: Giovanni presents Frederick Douglass as the necessary companion to Lincoln because Douglass represents Black leadership and the continuing…
Correct answer: Frederick Douglass- A. So the author could get paid.
- B. In order for people to believe the events in the narratives.
- C. So that slave owners could refute the events in the narratives.
- D. So that the author could be assured he wouldn't be recaptured.
Explanation: Because many readers doubted the testimony of enslaved people, an authenticated title page helped establish that the narrative was genuine…
Correct answer: In order for people to believe the events in the narratives.- A. William Wells Brown
- B. Richard Wright
- C. Charles Chesnutt
- D. Booker T. Washington
Explanation: Charles Chesnutt used psychologically developed characters and realistic African American dialect to challenge the stereotyped figures…
Correct answer: Charles Chesnutt- A. Stowe's novel is sentimental.
- B. Stowe describes the treatment of slaves.
- C. Stowe describes the escape of slaves.
- D. Uncle Tom's Cabin was used by abolitionists.Writers Resources
Explanation: Jacobs presents a former enslaved woman's autobiographical testimony, whereas Stowe's novel relies heavily on sentimental conventions to…
Correct answer: Stowe's novel is sentimental.- A. Narration of a deserved punishment.
- B. Depictions of a beautiful rural environment.
- C. Descriptions of the kinds of food and clothing slaves were given.
- D. The author's father is often a white man.
Explanation: Douglass follows a familiar slave-narrative convention by discussing the possibility that the enslaved person's father was white, often…
Correct answer: The author's father is often a white man.- A. To impress the horrors of slavery on listeners
- B. To ease their pain
- C. To pray for deliverance
- D. To show that they were content in their workLiterary Classics
Explanation: Douglass explains that enslaved people's songs expressed suffering and longing for deliverance, rather than proving that they were happy…
Correct answer: To show that they were content in their workLiterary Classics- A. Jean Toomer.
- B. Richard Wright.
- C. Ralph Ellison.
- D. James Baldwin.
Explanation: Richard Wright wrote Native Son, whose protagonist Bigger Thomas becomes a central figure in twentieth-century African American fiction.
Correct answer: Richard Wright.- A. To go to a party.
- B. To go pay old man Stevenson.
- C. To end their lives.
- D. To go to church.
Explanation: In “A Summer Tragedy,” the elderly couple dresses carefully because they intend to preserve their dignity before committing suicide…
Correct answer: To end their lives.- A. Lucy Terry
- B. William Wells Brown
- C. Harriet Wilson
- D. Harriet Jacobs
Explanation: Harriet Jacobs wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl under the pseudonym Linda Brent.
Correct answer: Harriet Jacobs- A. Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
- B. Harriet Wilson's Our Nig.
- C. William Wells Brown's Clotel.
- D. Toni Morrison's Beloved.
Explanation: Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig exposes racism in the supposedly free North, showing that emancipation did not guarantee humane treatment or…
Correct answer: Harriet Wilson's Our Nig.- A. William Wells Brown
- B. Lydia Maria Child
- C. Harriet Jacobs
- D. Harriet Beecher Stowe
Explanation: Lydia Maria Child helped establish the tragic-mulatto figure in The Quadroons, whose mixed-race heroine suffers because neither white nor…
Correct answer: Lydia Maria Child- A. Based on a New England captivity narrative.
- B. An anonymous narrative.
- C. Fiction written by Lydia Maria Child.
- D. Written by Jacob's son.
Explanation: Because Jacobs published under a pseudonym and Child edited the manuscript and wrote its preface, scholars once attributed the work to…
Correct answer: Fiction written by Lydia Maria Child.- A. The "Talented Tenth."
- B. All African Americans.
- C. African American women.
- D. Only White Americans.
Explanation: Du Bois proposed higher education for the “Talented Tenth,” an educated leadership group he believed could advance African American…
Correct answer: The "Talented Tenth."American Literature MCQs: common questions
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There are 222 American Literature MCQs in the English Literature bank, shown 20 to a page with the correct answer and an explanation on each.
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Yes. Each American Literature question shows the correct option and a written explanation of why it is correct, so a wrong answer teaches you something rather than just being marked wrong.
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