Study Questions
1. What is the narrator shocked and deeply hurt to hear Dr. Bledsoe call him?

2. What object does Dr. Bledsoe lift from the desk, from under a pile of papers?

3. How does the narrator respond when Dr. Bledsoe tells him that he will have to leave the college?

4. How does Dr. Bledsoe respond to the narrator’s response?

5. How much time does Dr. Bledsoe give the narrator to settle his affairs?

6. What does the narrator do as soon as he returns to his room?

7. How much money does the narrator have in his savings?

8. Why does the narrator return to Dr. Bledsoe’s office twice more at the end of the chapter?

9. What warning does Dr. Bledsoe give the narrator concerning the letters?

10. How many letters is the narrator given?

Answers
1. The narrator is shocked and deeply hurt to hear Dr. Bledsoe call him a “nigger.”

2. Dr. Bledsoe lifts an old iron shackle, the kind used in slavery days, from underneath the pile of papers on the desk.

3. When Dr. Bledsoe tells the narrator that he will have to leave, the latter responds very angrily, saying he will go to Mr. Norton and tell him everything.

4. Dr. Bledsoe responds to the narrator’s response with great amusement.

5. Dr. Bledsoe gives the narrator two days to settle his affairs.

6. As soon as he returns to his room, the narrator counts the money in his savings.

7. The narrator has about fifty dollars in his savings.

8. The narrator goes to Dr. Bledsoe’s office twice more, near the end of the chapter, first to tell Dr. Bledsoe he plans to leave the next morning, rather than use the whole two days that were allowed him, and last to receive the letters that Dr. Bledsoe promised him.

9. Dr. Bledsoe warns the narrator not to open the letters himself, or try to read them in any way.

10. The narrator is given seven letters.