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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. In “The River”, why do the characters head down to the river?

2. What animal comes to Old Gabriel’s cabin?

3. How old is Hazel Wickers?

4. Whose perspective is “The Crop” told in?

5. Why doesn’t the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” want to drive through Georgia?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Mr. Shiflet convince the widow of his sincerity?

2. Why does Hazel Wickers keep thinking about his mother?

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

4. Why doesn’t the grandmother want to drive through Georgia in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”?

5. What dismays Ruby about Rufus choosing collard greens as his something “special” that she will make for him?

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

7. Why does Rayber change barbers?

8. Why does Ruby dread Rufus’s arrival?

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

10. Why is Enoch convinced that he must show Hazel Weaver the mummified man?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mrs. Willerton in “The Crop” uses her fiction to escape into another reality. Analyze Mrs. Willerton’s fictional account to gain a sense of what she really wants in life? For example, what is suggested by Mrs. Willerton initially creating a mean unforgiving wife for Lot Motum? How does Mrs. Willerton come to his rescue? What is suggested by the crop loss and Lot Motum’s response?

Essay Topic 2

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

Essay Topic 3

In “The Geranium”, Old Dudley longs for his friend, Rabie, back in his southern hometown. What is ironic about his longing for home? Why does it bother Old Dudley that the African-American neighbor calls him Old Timer? How are his feelings for the neighbor and his feelings for Rabie contradictory?

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