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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 tries to befriend Hazel Motes?

2. What was Old Dudley waiting for while looking out the window?

3. What are the red-haired girl and the blind man doing in “The Peeler”?

4. What does Ruller hike back to his town with?

5. What does the boy in “The River” say his name is (though it isn’t)?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why does Rayber change barbers?

3. Why is Ruller so proud to bring the turkey home to his family?

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

5. How do the boys invade the farm, despite the widow asking them to leave in “A Circle in the Fire”?

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

7. What does Mrs. Willerton wish that she had more time for?

8. Though General Sash does not want to go to his granddaughter’s graduation, why does he agree to anyhow?

9. What happens at the end of “A Circle in the Fire”?

10. What does Enoch Emery’s daily routine consist of?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In “Enoch and the Gorilla”, Enoch is jubilant, convinced his outer appearance has changed him inside as well, but when he attempts to befriend a nearby couple, they are terrified of his realistic gorilla look and they run off screaming. What is O’Connor suggesting happens when people change their outward appearance in an attempt to change who they are? What other stories in this collection have characters who attempt at changing physical means to change internally?

Essay Topic 2

How does Flannery O'Connor use the physically grotesque to illustrate the beautiful? Discuss the meaning she might have implied with the use of the one-armed man, the club-footed delinquent, the retarded young woman, and the neglected boy who seeks heaven in the river.

Essay Topic 3

O’Connor’s stories are rich with symbolic irony. How does O’Connor demonstrate this in “The River”?

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