Chapter 22 Quiz — Invisible Man

by Ralph Ellison

Comprehension Quiz: Chapter 22

What does the narrator discover when he arrives in Harlem from downtown?

  • The Brotherhood has organized a peaceful protest march through the streets of Harlem
  • A full-scale race riot has erupted with buildings ablaze and streets engulfed in chaos
  • Ras the Exhorter is giving a speech to a calm but attentive crowd outside a church
  • The community has organized a memorial service for Tod Clifton in a public park

What does the narrator realize about the Brotherhood's role in the Harlem riot?

  • The Brotherhood tried to prevent the riot but failed due to lack of community trust
  • The Brotherhood was caught off guard by the riot and scrambled to respond effectively
  • The Brotherhood deliberately engineered the riot by withdrawing resources from Harlem
  • The Brotherhood sent organizers into Harlem to help calm the situation and protect residents

How has Ras the Exhorter transformed in Chapter 22?

  • He has become "Ras the Destroyer," riding on horseback in African warrior garb with a shield and spear
  • He has joined the Brotherhood and now works as an organizer promoting their political agenda
  • He has abandoned political activism entirely and opened a bookstore in Harlem to educate youth
  • He has become "Ras the Redeemer," leading nonviolent resistance marches through downtown streets

Why do Dupre and Scofield burn the tenement building during the riot?

  • They are following orders from Ras the Destroyer to destroy all white-owned properties in Harlem
  • The tenement is a dilapidated, rat-infested building whose destruction feels like justice to them
  • They are Brotherhood agents tasked with escalating the violence to serve the organization's agenda
  • They are trying to create a firebreak to prevent the riot's flames from spreading further

Who is Rinehart, and why is he significant in this chapter?

  • Rinehart is a Brotherhood leader who reveals the organization's true motives to the narrator
  • Rinehart is a police officer who helps the narrator escape from Ras the Destroyer's followers
  • Rinehart is a mysterious figure the narrator is mistaken for, who occupies multiple contradictory identities
  • Rinehart is one of Ras's lieutenants who defects and warns the narrator about the planned attack

Which of the following events actually occurs in Chapter 22?

  • Ras the Destroyer throws a spear at the narrator but narrowly misses him
  • The narrator joins Dupre and Scofield in burning the tenement building
  • Brother Jack arrives in Harlem to personally direct the Brotherhood's response
  • The narrator confronts Ras and convinces him to stop the violence

Which of these does NOT happen in Chapter 22?

  • The narrator is mistaken for Rinehart while wearing dark sunglasses
  • Dupre and Scofield ensure residents are evacuated before burning the tenement
  • The narrator returns to Brotherhood headquarters to confront the leadership
  • Ras the Destroyer rides through the streets on horseback in warrior costume

What is the central irony of the Brotherhood's relationship to the Harlem riot?

  • The Brotherhood spent years building community trust only to have it destroyed by one failed speech
  • The organization that claimed to fight for Harlem's liberation deliberately engineered its destruction
  • The Brotherhood's most dedicated members were the first to abandon the community during the crisis
  • The riot achieved exactly what the Brotherhood wanted but the organization took no credit for it

In the context of this chapter, what does "dispossessed" mean when the narrator says the rioters "had been dispossessed of their illusions"?

  • Physically removed from their homes and forced to relocate to temporary shelters
  • Stripped of their beliefs and the illusions that had made their daily lives bearable
  • Given new possessions and opportunities by the Brotherhood's community programs
  • Legally deprived of their property rights through discriminatory housing policies

What does Ras's spear symbolize in his confrontation with the narrator?

  • The failure of African cultural traditions to address modern American racial conflicts
  • The Brotherhood's hidden weapons cache that has been distributed to community members
  • The demand that every Black person choose a single, absolute identity with no room for nuance
  • The narrator's own suppressed desire for violent resistance against white supremacy

How does Ellison's prose style shift during the riot scenes in Chapter 22?

  • It becomes purely journalistic, presenting events in detached, clinical detail throughout
  • It shifts between documentary realism and surrealist vision, reflecting a world beyond ordinary experience
  • It adopts a stream-of-consciousness style that abandons all narrative structure entirely
  • It reverts to the formal, academic tone the narrator used during his college years

What happens to the narrator's sense of identity by the end of Chapter 22?

  • He fully embraces the Brotherhood's ideology and recommits to their cause with renewed faith
  • He adopts Rinehart's approach of maintaining multiple fluid identities simultaneously in society
  • He is stripped of every affiliation and externally imposed identity, reaching total dispossession
  • He accepts Ras's call to Black nationalism and joins the Destroyer's movement against whites

How does the Brotherhood's betrayal in Chapter 22 connect to earlier events in the novel?

  • It is an isolated incident with no connection to the narrator's previous experiences at the college
  • It completes a pattern of institutional betrayal that began with Dr. Bledsoe and continued through Liberty Paints
  • It contradicts everything the narrator has experienced, as all prior institutions treated him fairly
  • It mirrors Tod Clifton's decision to leave the Brotherhood and sell Sambo dolls on the street

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