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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. Why does Mr. Coulson tell his servant to "bring an axe" (335)?
2. Who is Miss Van Meeker Constantia Coulson?
3. According to the narrator, what does May want humans to remember?
4. What point is made through the juxtaposition of Mr. Coulson's and Mrs. Widdup's comments about springtime?
5. There are "jonquils" near where Mr. Coulson is sitting. What are jonquils?
Short Essay Questions
1. What is the significance of the sound of the overturned chair after Mr. Coulson confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup?
2. When Miss Coulson says that the supposedly chilly weather is "An instance...of winter lingering in the lap of spring," what double meaning does she have in mind? (335).
3. When rhetorical purposes are served by the passage where the narrator says that the scent of flowers was carried in through the window and "fought" with the scent of Mr. Coulson's gout medicine?
4. How does O. Henry characterize the month of May?
5. 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?
6. Explain the technique at work in the sentences "Sparrows wrangled happily everywhere outdoors. Never trust May" (333).
7. How do words like "yaller" and "lawsy" in Mrs. Widdup's dialogue characterize her?
8. When Mr. Coulson finally confesses his feelings to Mrs. Widdup, what drawback to himself does he acknowledge, and what advantage does he say balances this drawback out?
9. 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?
10. How does O. Henry use verbal misunderstandings to characterize Mrs. Widdup when she first appears in Mr. Coulson's room?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Make and defend a claim about the purpose of O. Henry's allusions in "The Marry Month of May." Use both paraphrased and quoted textual evidence to support your claim.
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay in which you analyze the characterization of Mr. Coulson and make a claim about its significance in the story. Use textual evidence to support your claim.
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.
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This section contains 1,044 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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