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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Why is it hard for Styron to recognize depression in his friend, Gary?
(a) Because Gary always had a melancholy typical of Europeans.
(b) Because he rarely talked to Gary.
(c) Because he didn't know what depression looked like.
(d) Because Gary was so good at hiding his feelings.

2. According to Styron, who wrote about depression and seemed to really understand it?
(a) Camus.
(b) Gary.
(c) Chaucer.
(d) Dante.

3. What symptoms did Jarrell suffer from that caused Styron to believe in Jarrell's suicide?
(a) He often mentioned life wasn't worth living.
(b) He had a terminal illness and was in pain.
(c) He wanted his wife to have money and his insurance would give it to her.
(d) Black despondency, violent fluctuation of mood, and his deep depression.

4. How does Camus's essay about a prisoner on death row impact Styron's writing?
(a) It causes him to stop writing for a while.
(b) It leads to his using a narrator on death row to tell the story in "Confessions of Nat Turner."
(c) It gives him some ideas about stories he wants to write.
(d) It causes him to want to write much better than he felt Camus did.

5. Who arranges a meeting between Albert Camus and Styron?
(a) William Styron.
(b) Romain Gary.
(c) Cino del Duco
(d) Rose Styron.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which group of people does depression never happen to?

2. Where did Styron meet Hoffman?

3. Styron agrees with what literary guide's belief?

4. What percentage of artistic types who suffer from depression die from suicide?

5. At what point in one's life does Styron say the seeds of depression are planted?

Short Essay Questions

1. What did Styron say about his physical condition after he got released from the hospital?

2. Discuss how Styron says he attempted to handle the increasing malaise that began to overcome him beginning in the summer.

3. What did Styron discover about himself in Paris, during one of his more lucid moments?

4. Why did Styron refuse to go to a luncheon with Simone del Duca, even though he had made an appointment to do so?

5. For the most part, the people Styron list as suffering from depression are artistic types or philosophers. Discuss why this may be so?

6. What did Styron say was his most difficult piece of writing, and how did he describe it?

7. What did Styron say about the impression his intense thoughts of suicide would have on others?

8. What did Styron say was so harmful that doctors were prone to do for depressed people and why?

9. What did Styron have to say about hospitalization for depressed people?

10. What did Styron tell the reader about the incidence of depression and artistic types? Who are some artistic types who suffered from depression?

(see the answer keys)

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