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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. Who is Seth to Richard Hagstrom?

2. What was Mrs. Todd obsessed with?

3. What happens after Hal throws the offending item into the lake?

4. What happens to Rachel when she leans over to touch the object floating on the lake?

5. Who is Mike Scollay?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the significance of the "Execute" button on the word processor, and how does Richard feel when looking at that button for the first time?

2. What is the basic conflict expressed in "The Monkey"? Is there an implied winner? If so, whom or what?

3. What is the purpose of King's use of a "Wouldn't it be funny if . . . ?" beginning to his short stories? What do you think this method adds to or detracts from his stories?

4. Why do you think King bases his entire introduction on a seemingly mundane conversation with a friend?

5. In "The Jaunt," Mark's family is destroyed by Mark's own deception. Given the reasons for his deception, do you think he was justified in his actions.

6. In "The Raft," Deke twice stops Randy from attempting to save Rachel. Was this the right thing to do, given the circumstances?

7. What significance does the word processor hold for Richard after Jon's death?

8. The narrator seems to follow a theme throughout the story. What is the main theme the narrator displays?

9. What is the implied source of the infestation in "The Mist"? How does he make this implication? What do you think King is trying to say with this implication?

10. "The Wedding Gig" is rife with metaphors, figures of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something in common. For example, "Love is a rose" is a metaphor. Identify a metaphor from "The Wedding Gig" and identify the two things being compared.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Character development can be difficult in a short story with less opportunity available for detail. What are some examples of well-developed characters within these stories? How does King manage to develop them so thoroughly? Do you think other characters in these stories were less developed? Do you think this detracts from the story?

Essay Topic 2

A simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, as in "How like the winter hath my absence been" or "So are you to my thoughts as food to life." Recall a simile used in "The Mist" and explain why it seems more descriptive than the usual mundane expression of simple adjectives.

Essay Topic 3

Setting is often a major contributing factor to the mood of a story or novel. However, many of King's stories in this book do not stress setting as much as character. Are there any stories in which the setting is an important factor to the mood? If so, which ones and why? How does King use his characters rather than the setting to set the mood in his stories?

(see the answer keys)

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