The Beautiful Struggle

Multiple Choice

1. A (Chapter 1)

2. B (Chapter 2)

3. A (Chapters 1-2) 

4. D (Chapter 3)

5. C (Chapter 3)

6. B (Chapter 4)

7. B (Chapter 4)

8. C (Chapter 5)

9. A (Chapter 5)

10. D (Chapter 6)

11. D (Chapter 6)

12. B (Chapter 7)

13. D (Chapter 7)

14. C (Chapter 7)

15. A (Chapter 8)

Long Answer

1. The “beautiful struggle” refers equally to Coates’s personal life and to the fight for Black liberation. The term encapsulates the pains and pleasures of Coates moving from childhood to adulthood alongside the beauty inherent in Blackness and the fight necessary to resist racist oppression. (Various chapters)

2. The contradictions in Coates’s father’s personality and ethics come to the fore at the end of the book. The main one that emerges is the fact that, despite his strict parenting style and intense devotion to Black liberation, Coates’s father has loose morals when it comes to romantic encounters and the institution of marriage, as evidenced by his leaving Coates’s mother.