A Different Mirror

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. Takaki begins Chapter 1 by describing a personal experience involving a racist encounter. Who is the other person in this encounter?

2. In the year 1000, Vikings sailed from Iceland to a new land they called Vinland. What is Vinland known as today?

3. In what year was The Tempest first performed in London, a time when English audiences were becoming increasingly exposed to different societies?

4. Takaki traces the English people’s notion of racialized identity—the concepts of “savage” and “civilized”—to the invasion of what country?

5. In Chapter 2, Takaki uses an allegory from The Tempest to further tease out the racially charged concepts of “savage” and “civilized.” In this allegory, Prospero best embodies the traits of which society?

6. What about Caliban’s mother serves as evidence, as Takaki argues, that Caliban is Black?

7. In what year did Africans land in Virginia, not as slaves but as indentured servants?

8. Takaki analyzes the writings of which American historical figure to demonstrate that slavery, in colonial America, was never a coherent project?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence.