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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did the old man respond when his children asked him what O'Connor's peacock was?
(a) He says it is an "overgrown chicken."
(b) He stands in silence before getting back in his car.
(c) He says it is "a peacock and nothing more."
(d) He says it is "the king of the birds."

2. What did the telephone repairman say he thought O'Connor's peacock could outrun?
(a) A roadrunner.
(b) A cheetah.
(c) A bus.
(d) An Oldsmobile.

3. What question did the editorial that challenged O'Connor ask?
(a) Who speaks for the South today?
(b) Who speaks for America today?
(c) Who speaks for women today?
(d) Who speaks for the poor today?

4. While some call "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" grotesque, what does O'Connor call it?
(a) Simplistic.
(b) Literal.
(c) Conceptual.
(d) Symbolic.

5. According to O'Connor, what do Northern authors consider everything written by Southerners?
(a) Sappy.
(b) Simplistic.
(c) Religious.
(d) Grotesque.

6. What is O'Connor's advice for writers who do not want to be regional?
(a) Be an American writer.
(b) Only write fantasy and science fiction.
(c) Only write fiction.
(d) Move to an unfamiliar region.

7. What artist was John Peale Bishop referring to when he claimed that you cannot say this person painted apples and tablecloth and say what he has painted?
(a) Cezanne.
(b) Gauguin.
(c) Redon.
(d) Rousseau.

8. What does O'Connor say the serious writer is interested in?
(a) The habit of art.
(b) Pleasing the reader.
(c) Studying and learning.
(d) Getting outside of their comfort zone.

9. How much was a pair of peafowl that O'Connor saw in the paper?
(a) $20.
(b) $30.
(c) $65.
(d) $150.

10. Who is the Dixie Limited?
(a) Faulkner.
(b) Twain.
(c) Capote.
(d) Welty.

11. What did the editorial that challenged American writers say American writers do?
(a) Write about being poor.
(b) Write too much like British writers.
(c) Write too abstractly, confusing readers.
(d) Write as if everyone in the country is rich.

12. O'Connor says belief in what is a hindrance to writers?
(a) Good and evil.
(b) God.
(c) The American dream.
(d) Christian dogma.

13. Which of O'Connor's works does she use to show examples of hidden themes and symbols?
(a) Wise Blood.
(b) The Violent Bear It Away.
(c) Everything That Rises Must Converge.
(d) A Good Man Is Hard to Find.

14. What did O'Connor feel like when she heard about The School Southern Degeneracy?
(a) The White Rabbit.
(b) Br'er Rabbit.
(c) The Velvetine Rabbit.
(d) Peter Rabbit.

15. Besides the telephone repairman, who did O'Connor say is indifferent to the peacock's display?
(a) Floridians.
(b) Children.
(c) The peahen.
(d) Old women.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did an old woman cry when she finally saw the tail on O'Connor's peacock?

2. What volunteer fire department was Mr. Montgomery a member of?

3. Who is the author of "Summer Dust"?

4. What does O'Connor say there are more of in the South than rivers and streams?

5. Who does O'Connor quote at the end of "The Fiction Writer and His Country"?

(see the answer keys)

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