Practice Short Story Test 1-9 points
Pick one of the below questions and answer it as best you can.
The significance of some titles is easy to discover. However, in other works the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually. Pick one of the following: “Cathedral”, “The Drunkard”, “Hunters in the Snow” or “The Swimmer” and show how the significance of their respective title is developed through the authors' use of devices such as contrast, irony, allusion, and point of view.
Although literary critics have tended to praise the unique in literary characterizations, many authors have employed the stereotyped character successfully. Select either A&P, “Everyday Use” or “The Use of Force” and show how the conventional or stereotyped character or characters function to achieve the author's purpose.
Literature can at times be self-referential, self-congratulatory and critical of itself. As art itself a piece of literature can be a subject and a goal. Pick one of the stories that addresses art as a topic (Paul’s Case, The Kugalmass Episode Everyday Use, Araby or Cathedral) and explain what the author is saying about art, and how it is used to achieve the author’s intent.
Name ______
Short Story Test 50 point score ______
A.P. 1-9 score ______
Directions: Pick one of the below questions and answer it as best you can. Remember: complexity and subtlety is good, confusion and vagueness is bad.
µ) In both “The Swimmer” and “The Kugelmass Episode” an implausible or strikingly unrealistic incident or distortion of reality takes place. Write an essay that explains how the incident or distortion is related to the more realistic or plausible elements in the rest of the work, and how it helps to convey the meaning of the work.
β)“Paul’s Case”, “Hunters in the Snow” , “Cathedral” and “The Kugelmass Episode” all use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, or two houses) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose one of these stories and write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.
Ω) One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in either “Hunters in the Snow”, “Use of Force” or “Paul’s Case” struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.