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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. What war did General Sash serve in?

2. What season is it in “The Heart of the Park”?

3. What does Mrs. Cope offer the teenage boys?

4. How old is the boy in “The River”?

5. In the beginning of “The Barbar”, what is Rayber reminiscing about?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What is O’Connor’s message in “The River”?

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

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

8. What does Old Dudley think about New York?

9. Why is Ruller afraid something bad is about to happen?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

In many of O’Connor’s stories, women have aged because of having and rearing children. Which of O’Connor’s stories demonstrated this motif? Which characters lives have been altered, for the negative, because of children? How do women who don’t have children fare in O’Connor’s stories?

Essay Topic 3

Many of O’Connor’s characters are similar. Which characters are the most similar? How do their life’s situations resemble one another?

(see the answer keys)

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