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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Of the now shutting-down iron mill, Mitchell says in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “One could fancy these red smoldering lights to be the half-shut eyes of wild beasts, and the spectral figures their” what?
(a) Victims in the den
(b) Glistening teeth
(c) Scaly wings
(d) Pitchforks

2. Waiting for the Verdict is a novel about what?
(a) The Spanish Inquisition
(b) The Oklahoma Dust Bowl
(c) The Mexican American War
(d) Pre-Civil War racial tensions

3. The author of “A Biographical Interpretation” states that Rebecca Harding Davis grew up along what river?
(a) The Ohio River
(b) The Colorado River
(c) The Columbus River
(d) The Hudson River

4. How many hands are employed at the iron mill where Hugh works in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) 1,200
(b) 2,100
(c) 800
(d) 5,000

5. What word used in “Life in the Iron Mills” refers to a side of cured pork?
(a) Bandy
(b) Curry
(c) Flitch
(d) Haggis

Short Answer Questions

1. What feeder at the mill does Hugh look down on at the marketplace from his cell in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

2. How many men are in the group of visitors that come through the mill where Hugh works in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

3. The narrator in the beginning of “Life in the Iron Mills” refers to the reader as “You, Egoist, or Pantheist, or” what?

4. What sentence does Hugh Wolfe receive in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

5. The church that Hugh enters on the night he decides to keep the money is described by the narrator of “Life in the Iron Mills” as what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What elements of social change did Rebecca Harding Davis encounter during finishing school?

2. How is the sculpted figure discovered by one of the visitors at the mill described in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

3. What does Hugh look down on from his prison window at in “Life in the Iron Mills”? What does this scene make him realize?

4. How does the author of “A Biographical Interpretation” describe Rebecca Harding Davis’s early years of marriage?

5. What does Deb attempt to give Hugh after they return home from the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills”? How does Hugh respond?

6. How would you describe the setting of “Life in the Iron Mills”? What tone is established through the story’s setting?

7. How are the themes of poverty and class entrapment illustrated through the character of Hugh in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

8. What is the outcome for Hugh in the denouement of “Life in the Iron Mills”?

9. How does the narrator describe Hugh’s interaction with Deborah when she brings him dinner at the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

10. How would you describe the author’s use of dialogue in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

(see the answer keys)

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