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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who helps Old Dudley up the stairs?

2. How many customers are in the diner in “Enoch and the Gorilla”?

3. What does the upper sleeping berth remind Hazel Wickers of?

4. “The Barber” takes place in which town?

5. What does Hazel Weaver want from Enoch Emery?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Rayber’s old barber call him a “mother hubbard”?

2. Why does Ruby dread Rufus’s arrival?

3. How is the General dying at the commencement a form of irony?

4. Why doesn’t the hitchhiker ride with Mr. Shiflet when he pulls over for him?

5. How does O’Connor use foreshadowing in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”?

6. Why is the man in the gorilla suit irritated with Enoch?

7. Why is Hazel Motes reluctant to befriend Enoch Emery?

8. Why is it ironic that the young boy’s parents are going to the river to the baptisms in “The River”?

9. What is Old Gabriel afraid of besides the wildcat?

10. Why doesn’t Hazel Wickers believe that the porter’s father was a railroad engineer?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The Grotesque

a. O’Connor was obsessed with grotesque images. Where is this evident in her writing?

b. What’s absurd about O’Connor’s stories?

Essay Topic 2

Many of the settings in The Complete Stories take place on small farms and in small southern towns. Do you think Flannery O'Connor paints a realistic picture of life in a small town and on a farm? What about small-town southern people?

Essay Topic 3

O’Connor includes a lot of description of the natural world in her writing. What do the detailed descriptions of skies, sunsets, top lines of trees, and clouds indicate about the author? How many sunsets are depicted with exceptional clarity?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 772 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample