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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. Of Hugh Wolfe, the narrator says in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “Yet he was kind to her: it was his nature to be kind, even to the very” what?
(a) Police that hold him down
(b) Dog that bit him
(c) Beggars in the streets
(d) Rats that swarmed the cellar

2. The narrator describes Hugh Wolfe as a furnace-tender at one of whose rolling-mills in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Maxwell and Thoreau’s
(b) Peter and Paul’s
(c) Anderson and Smith’s
(d) Kirby and John’s

3. How many men are in the group of visitors that come through the mill where Hugh works in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) 10-11
(b) 2-3
(c) 8-9
(d) 5-6

4. What sentence does Hugh Wolfe receive in “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) 19 years hard labor
(b) 3 years solitary confinement
(c) 2 years parole
(d) 5 years hard labor

5. How does the narrator describe the weather in the opening of “Life in the Iron Mills”?
(a) Arid
(b) Sunny
(c) Cloudy
(d) Windy

Short Answer Questions

1. Rebecca Harding and L. Clarke Davis became engaged how long after meeting?

2. Janey tells Deborah that “the father” is in the stone house with whom in the beginning of “Life in the Iron Mills”?

3. The mill-owner’s son tells his companions in “Life in the Iron Mills,” “If I had the making of men, these men who do the lowest part of the world’s work should be” what?

4. When was Rebecca Harding Davis born?

5. On what date did Rebecca Harding Davis die?

Short Essay Questions

1. How would you describe the author’s use of dialogue in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

2. What is the basic story related in the plot of “Life in the Iron Mills”? How would you “sum up” the story in one or two sentences?

3. How would you describe the setting of “Life in the Iron Mills”? What tone is established through the story’s setting?

4. How are the themes of poverty and class entrapment illustrated through the character of Hugh in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

5. How is Hugh caught by the authorities in “Life in the Iron Mills”? What is Hugh charged with and sentenced?

6. How did the outbreak of the Civil War impact Rebecca Harding Davis’s work, according to the author of “A Biographical Interpretation”?

7. How is the setting described in “Life in the Iron Mills”? How does the setting in which the narrator exists differ from the setting of Deb and Hugh’s story?

8. What decision does Hugh reach when he goes to attempt to return the money in “Life in the Iron Mills”? Why?

9. How does the narrator describe Hugh’s interaction with Deborah when she brings him dinner at the mill in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

10. What are the impressions of the visitors when they see the sculpture in “Life in the Iron Mills”?

(see the answer keys)

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