View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does the Misfit say when Grandmother asks if he would shoot an old lady?

2. What do they hear from the woods?

3. Why does Grandmother kick the valise?

4. Why are Misfit's eyes red rimmed, pale and defensive looking?

5. What does the Misfit say about his parents?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the Misfit's appearance?

2. Why do you think the Misfit does not kill Grandmother until the end?

3. In what way does Grandmother's death affect the Misfit?

4. Why do you think the Grandmother tries to persuade the Misfit to pray?

5. What does it say about Grandmother that she cannot keep Misfit's name to herself?

6. In what way does the Grandmother foreshadow their deaths?

7. Why were the fifties such an important transitional period?

8. Is it significant Misfit claims he cannot remember his crime?

9. How do you think the Grandmother interprets the bible?

10. Why do you think Grandmother smuggles the cat into the car?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Describe the Misfit's time in jail. How do you think it affected him? Does O'Connor portray his time in jail as a help to him? What does it say about the state of prisons in the fifties?

Essay Topic 2

O'Connor does not give either the mother or Grandmother real names. What is the reason O'Connor does not give them names? Why do you think only the female characters do not have names?

Essay Topic 3

Choose a character from the story and write his or hers background, motivation and character conflict. How would the story change if they were not there?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 788 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample