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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. What does Hazel Weaver want from Enoch Emery?

2. Why doesn’t the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” want to drive through Georgia?

3. What is Ruller pretending to be?

4. In “The River”, why do the characters head down to the river?

5. Whom does Mrs. Willerton become in her own story?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Ruller afraid something bad is about to happen?

2. Why doesn’t the grandmother want to drive through Georgia in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”?

3. What happens at the end of “A Circle in the Fire”?

4. Why is the man in the gorilla suit irritated with Enoch?

5. How does Mr. Shiflet convince the widow of his sincerity?

6. How is the General dying at the commencement a form of irony?

7. Why doesn’t Hazel Wickers believe that the porter’s father was a railroad engineer?

8. How does Mrs. Willerton feel about her daily life?

9. Why is Hazel Motes reluctant to befriend Enoch Emery?

10. How does O’Connor use foreshadowing in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

O’Connor’s work is often described as morbid, namely because she often has children die in her stories. How many stories have similarly neglected small children that die at the end? What does this represent?

Essay Topic 2

Religion

a. How does religion play a role in short stories in The Complete Stories?

b. What religious motifs arise again and again in O’Connor’s work?

Essay Topic 3

O’ Connor’s writing is full of absurd images and grotesque scenes. What is absurd about Enoch Emery’s behavior? What is comical about his discoveries, his routine and his expectations? What is O’Connor suggesting by the absurdity of this story?

(see the answer keys)

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