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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. To whom does Flannery give some criticism on a short story in one of the letters in this section?

2. How many letters are included in Part 3?

3. What color is Flannery's house?

4. Flannery comments on a woman who reads the existentialists and claims to have lost her __________________.

5. Which of the following does Flannery have to manage in her life?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is revealed about Flannery's lifestyle in this section?

2. In what slang style does Flannery sometimes slip into in her letters?

3. What event occurs to validate Flannery's Celtic roots?

4. In addition to the Fitzgeralds, Flannery and William Sessions have another friend in common--how does this friend make Flannery feel?

5. How does Flannery describe her driving test debacle to Maryat Lee?

6. How old was Flannery when her father died and where did the family live?

7. What practical advice does Flannery give to Cecil about rejection slips and taking cough medicine?

8. What is the nature of the illness from which Flannery suffers?

9. How does the reader know that the person known as "A" is an important one in Flannery's life?

10. Who are some of Flannery's earliest contacts?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Explain the role of women in the rural South in the mid-twentieth century. What precedents do they feel compelled to follow? What restrictions do they have? What freedoms did they have that 21st century women do not have? Why would Flannery both have fit in in rural Georgia while at the same time distinguishing herself there? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

A thread of isolation is an important one in Flannery's letters. How was Flannery isolated as a child? How is a writer's life one of solitude and isolation? How is Flannery's personal life also very isolated? Does she choose some of the distancing she experiences or is isolation inherent in a writer's complete life? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Flannery's Catholic beliefs are very important to her as evidenced in her letters. Why do you think Flannery is especially devout? Why do you think Flannery is willing to really dig into her religion and explore other Catholic writers and what they are saying? Does Flannery's illness play a part in her beliefs? Can she be considered a zealot? Explain.

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