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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. In what town does Delia attend church at the time Sykes is keeping the rattlesnake?

2. What term is used to describe the color of the rattlesnake's fangs?

3. What reason does Sykes provide for his conclusion that the snake would never bite Delia?

4. What beverage does Sykes drink slowly and deliberately before he responds to Delia's request that he remove the snake?

5. What does Old Man Anderson suggest that the men do to Sykes and Bertha in Lake Howell swamp?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Delia try "to be blind and deaf" (5) to Sykes's gallivanting around town with Bertha?

2. How does the snake's behavior change once it has taken two or three days to digest its large meal of frogs?

3. How do Delia's actions and feelings in regard to the rattlesnake change once she sees its fangs wrapped around the wire mesh of its box?

4. What is Hurston's purpose for alluding to Gethsemane and the rocks of Calvary during the period of conflict with Sykes?

5. What plans does Sykes make with Bertha and what is the significance of these plans?

6. How does Sykes go about showing the rattlesnake to Delia after he has brought it home?

7. What is the significance of the snake baring its "scimitar" (6)-like fangs at Delia?

8. What is ironic about Sykes's statement to Bertha that the town is his and that she can have it if she wants it?

9. How does Delia react once Sykes both refuses to remove the rattlesnake and threatens to beat her?

10. What causes a "determined silence" (4) to fall over the porch when the men are about to slice the watermelon?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how the author uses various characterization methods to depict the antagonist of the story, Sykes.

Essay Topic 2

Perform a Marxist criticism of the short story Sweat.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the rising action and climax stages of the story and discuss how the story's themes are brought forth within these two plot arc stages.

(see the answer keys)

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