The Beautiful Struggle

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. When Coates is being attacked by the group of kids in Chapter 1, he calls his father from a pay phone. What advice does his father give him?

A) “Stand next to an adult.”

B) “Fight with all you’ve got.”

C) “Run to the nearest grocery store and wait for me.”

D) “Tell them if they wanna live to see their next birthday—they better not mess with Paul Coates’s sons.”

2. When word spreads at school that Coates does not like to fight, who goads him on into a fist fight?

A) His arch nemesis, Georgi

B) His friend, Kwesi

C) His cousin, Johnson

D) His brother, Big Bill

3. Which of the following adjectives best describe Coates’s character, particularly at the beginning of the memoir?

A) Spacey and pacifistic

B) Foolish and rambunctious

C) Funny and spirited

D) Aggressive and depressed

4. What was the historic moment that prompted Coates’s father to join the Black Panther Party?

A) Rosa Parks’s bus boycott

B) The death of Martin Luther King, Jr.

C) The March on Washington in 1963

D) The death of Malcolm X

5. According to Coates, what is one of the biggest differences between his father and other members of the Black Panther party?

A) Instead of only embracing contemporary Black figures, Coates’s father embraces more ancient African ancestors.

B) Instead of arming himself with guns and weaponry, Coates’s father takes a pacifistic approach to Black liberation.

C) Instead of just talking about Knowledge, Coates’s father creates a publishing house to distribute Knowledge.

D) Instead of attending regular Black Panther meetings, Coates’s father isolates himself with his studies.

6. Coates’s father tries to prepare Coates and Big Bill for Consciousness before what momentous occasion in their lives?

A) Their admission to high school

B) Their 18th birthdays

C) Their first protest in Washington, DC

D) Their prom night

7. What object does Coates describe as a “Staff of the Dreaded Streets”?

A) His father’s baseball bat

B) His own personal pen

C) His mother’s rolling pin

D) His brother’s barbell

8. Coates describes an encounter with a girl that causes him shame and ridicule among his classmates during the college prep program. What happened?

A) He tries to kiss a girl in his class, but she rejects him.

B) A girl in his class sees him shirtless and makes degrading comments about his chest.

C) A girl in his class tries to seduce him, but he does not make a sexual advance on her.

D) He trips and falls in a mud puddle, right in front of his crush.

9. Which of the following best describes “Original Man”?

A) It is a source of confidence; it is Coates’s inner strength that draws upon the strength of his ancestors.

B) It is a source of shame; it represents the sins of his ancestors, and it haunts Coates.

C) It is a source of sadness; it represents the pain of his ancestors, and it pulls him into a depression.

D) It is a source of playfulness; it is Coates’s youthful spirit that draws upon his inner child.

10. What reason does Coates’s father provide for moving his family to the suburbs?

A) He is tired of living among the urban poor.

B) He does not want his children growing up in Baltimore.

C) He thinks it is important that there is Black Panther representation in the suburbs.

D) He has never had a big backyard, and he wants one.

11. In Chapters 5-6, with Coates’s failure at Polytech and his participation in NationHouse, it is revealed that Coates has a certain disdain for which of the following types of thought?

A) Nihilism

B) Republicanism

C) Abstraction

D) Normativity

12. According to Coates, why do “Girls of Knowledge” avoid romantic relationships with him?

A) Because they are snobbish and rarely notice him

B) Because they are focused on Knowledge, and boys like Coates could mean bad news 

C) Because they always seem to prefer Big Bill instead

D) Because they like Boys of Knowledge, and that does not describe Coates yet

13. One of Coates’s teachers says he might be gifted academically. What subject does this teacher teach, and what do they think is Coates’s gift?

A) Calculus; they think Coates may be gifted in mathematics.

B) History; they think Coates may be gifted in the social sciences.

C) Art; they think Coates may be gifted in drawing.

D) English; they think Coates may be gifted in writing.

14. Coates’s father reveals that he is leaving Coates’s mother. Who is Coates’s father romantically involved with now?

A) Janel

B) Janice

C) Jovett

D) Jill

15. What scene does The Beautiful Struggle end on, revealing that Coates’s father’s strict rules are fading away?

A) His younger brother Menelik smiling and holding a water pistol

B) His friend Saul and Big Bill hugging each other

C) His father reaching out to Coates’s mother for a reassuring pat on the hand

D) His father waving at a neighbor whom he previously hated

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. What does the title of the book—The Beautiful Struggle—refer to? What is “the struggle” and why is it “beautiful”?

2. Contradiction arises as a prominent theme at the close of the book, especially with regard to Coates’s father. What are the main contradictions that emerge in his personality?