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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 Louise do for John Hardy?

2. Why does the tall, dark girl originally come see Dr. Reefy?

3. How does the town feel about Joe and Sarah?

4. Why is Tom and Elizabeth's hotel losing guests?

5. Why does Jesse come to the family farm?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Paper Pills", how are the tall, dark girl's suitors different?

2. What happens one summer evening in George and Helen's past that George reflects upon?

3. Why does Tom and his grandmother move to Winesburg?

4. What happens to Wing's teaching career?

5. Why is Reverend Curtis' sermon different after the first time he sees Kate?

6. What makes it difficult for the carpenter to finish his job in "The Book of the Grotesque" and why?

7. How is Wing different around George?

8. What happens to make David fear Jesse?

9. When Ned first plans to move to Cleveland, what does Alice tell him?

10. What does the drunken stranger say about women and love to Tom and Tandy?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does the farm work as a setting in "Winesburg, Ohio"? Discuss the use of the farm as a setting, including the emotions connected with farms, family obligation, events tied to farms and the symbolic language used to describe farms.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss how three or four characters failed to use their natural talents to better themselves. Describe the talent, including how you are made aware of it. Use evidence from the text to prove the talent and the characters failure to realize it. What happens to these characters as a result? What happens to the people around them? What does this failure mean to the book as a whole?

Essay Topic 3

Select two stories that feature the same character (other than George Willard). How is the character represented in each story? What is the character's role? Is there any growth in the character? What accounts for these differences? What does this character mean to the novel overall?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 787 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample