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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. Miss Coulson has a "lorgnette" (334). What is a lorgnette?

2. Why does Mr. Coulson tell his servant to "bring an axe" (335)?

3. Which of the following literary techniques is used in the title "The Marry Month of May"?

4. What is the first indication that Mrs. Widdup does not listen carefully?

5. When the author compares May to Circe and explains the comparison at length, what literary technique is he using?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happens when Mrs. Widdup makes an excuse to go into Mr. Coulson's room to speak with him after the ice is delivered?

2. What is Miss Coulson's plan to head off her father's budding romance?

3. How does O. Henry use dry humor to reveal the narrator's opinion about Mrs. Widdup in the narrative intrusion on page 333?

4. What is the rhetorical purpose of the allusions to Puck and Circe?

5. How do words like "yaller" and "lawsy" in Mrs. Widdup's dialogue characterize her?

6. What rhetorical purposes does O. Henry accomplish with his introduction of Mr. Coulson through a list of things that he "has," like gout, money, and a daughter?

7. How does O. Henry characterize the month of May?

8. Explain the significance of the diction "foxy" to describe Mrs. Widdup (333).

9. When Mr. Coulson complains that no one in the house cares if he lives or dies, how does Mrs. Widdup's reply set the events of the story in motion?

10. In the passage where Miss Coulson stares out the window, the reader is told "The chirp of the sparrows gave her a pain. She mocked at May" (334). To what earlier passage is this a reference, and what is the significance of the reference?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay that makes and defends a claim about the narrative voice of "The Marry Month of May." Use both paraphrased and quoted textual evidence to support your claim.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay that explores the way in which the story's setting impacts the reader's understanding of the theme of "The Marry Month of May." Use textual evidence to support your claims.

Essay Topic 3

Make and defend a claim about O. Henry's "The Marry Month of May" as an example of American Naturalism. Support your ideas with evidence from the text; if you use outside sources, be sure to cite them in MLA format.

(see the answer keys)

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