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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 Calhoun trying to vindicate?

2. Where is Mr. Head and the family member he lives with going?

3. Who does Mrs. Hopewell live with?

4. What happened to Norton’s mother?

5. Who does Thomas accidentally shoot?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the old man wish to be buried in “You Can’t Be Any Poorer Than Dead”?

2. Why does Julian accompany his mother on the bus?

3. How are the two teenage girls in “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” hypocritical?

4. Why is the father irritated with his son in “The Lame Shall Enter First”?

5. What is Mrs. Tilman worried about?

6. Why does Asbury ask his mother to call for the priest?

7. Why does Mrs. May want the bull removed from her pasture?

8. Which character has the keenest sense of observation in “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”?

9. Why doesn’t the grandson in “The Artificial Nigger” ever want to travel to the city again?

10. Why does the grandfather in “A View of the Woods” sell parcels of his land?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Many of the settings in The Complete Stories take place on small farms and in small southern towns. Do you think Flannery O'Connor paints a realistic picture of life in a small town and on a farm? What about small-town southern people?

Essay Topic 2

Children appear in many of O’Connor’s stories. What are the roles of children in O’Connor’s work? What happens to children in her stories?

Essay Topic 3

O’Connor’s stories are rich with symbolic irony. How does O’Connor demonstrate this in “The River”?

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