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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How long does Styron have to stay in the hospital?
(a) A month.
(b) Almost a year.
(c) Two weeks.
(d) Seven weeks.

2. What reason does Styron give for taking the prescribed medicines without question?
(a) He didn't know anything about the medicine.
(b) His doctor threathened the hospital if he didn't take it.
(c) He was too depressed to notice.
(d) He was told the medicine was harmless.

3. Why did Styron's publisher have to reschedule a photo session?
(a) Styron had left to go to Paris.
(b) Styron refused to come out of his room.
(c) Styron was in the hospital.
(d) Styron had only smiled in a few pictures but still looked as if in despair.

4. Why does he throw his diary in the garbage instead of burning it?
(a) He is afraid of fire, so couldn't bring himself to burn the diary.
(b) He doesn't want to start a fire and let his friends know what he was doing.
(c) It better represents the annihilation of a loathful self, and deserves to be thrown in the garbage as well.
(d) He doesn't want to see any trace, such as ashes.

5. Though depression tends to recur, what advantage do sufferers of recurrence have?
(a) They know it is curable and know how to work through it.
(b) Their family knows what to do for them.
(c) They know the best doctors and hospitals to use.
(d) They are already on medicines.

6. Why are late afternoons so distressing to Styron?
(a) He suffers from panic and anxiety.
(b) He gets sleepy and couldn't work.
(c) He has to go to his doctor every afternoon.
(d) He takes naps and had nightmares during the nap.

7. What famous poet does Styron name as an example of excellent works by a depressed person?
(a) Walt Whitman.
(b) Emily Bronte.
(c) Robert Frost.
(d) Emily Dickinson.

8. From Job to Styron's day, he says artists and writers have been trying to do what?
(a) Overcome the effects of depression that overcome artists.
(b) Explain the blackness of the fantasia of depression.
(c) Build better relationships to overcome depression.
(d) Cheer up people who suffer from depression with their works.

9. How does Styron mange to avoid the recommended shock treatment?
(a) His doctor doesn't believe in it.
(b) He refuses to let them do it.
(c) He begins to get better immediately.
(d) He pretends that he had already had it.

10. What piece of music moves Styron to his breakthrough and hospitalization?
(a) Beethoven's Fifth.
(b) Brahms's Alto Rhapsody.
(c) Chopin's Funeral March.
(d) Halleluah Chorus.

11. What is a probable reason that Styron's doctor or family don't suggest hospitalization for him?
(a) The social stigma and the fact that mental illness is not tangible or visible.
(b) They don't know he was that bad.
(c) He gets angry whenever they approach the subject.
(d) They don't think it would help him.

12. What does he think about art therapy?
(a) Too difficult hard.
(b) A waste of time.
(c) Skeptical because of the teacher's overly effusive praise, but eventually likes it.
(d) He would rather write than paint or draw.

13. What does Styron's psychiatrist do that sends him into a deep depression?
(a) Tells him he was never going to recover.
(b) Tells him he would have to wait ten days before starting his new medicine, and then it would take 6-8 weeks to work.
(c) Puts him in the hospital.
(d) Tells him to leave his wife if he wanted to get better.

14. What is the hardest piece of writing Styron attempted during his depression?
(a) Any upbeat writing.
(b) Poetry, due to its emotional nature.
(c) He stopped writing altogether.
(d) His goodbye letter.

15. What happens when Styron's medicine is changed?
(a) His suicidal thoughts cease.
(b) He becomes violent and has to be restrained.
(c) His depression deepens.
(d) He can't sleep at night.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Styron's avoidance of death due to?

2. What term does Styron give to the loss of a parent or something early in life?

3. How does Styron indicate he was planning to die?

4. What conclusion can we make for what Styron says about his recovery?

5. Why does Styron think of his mother as he listens to the music?

(see the answer keys)

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