The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What literary technique does the following quote best exemplify? “The tramp stood looking at [Mrs. Crater] and didn’t answer. He turned his back and faced the sunset. He swung both his whole and his short arm up slowly so that they indicated an expanse of sky and his figure formed a crooked cross.”

A) Religious imagery

B) Foreshadowing

C) Verbal irony

D) Personification

2. Which of the following best illustrates an element of the grotesque in Southern Gothic literature?

A) “The boy bent over her and stared at the long pink-gold hair and the half-shut sleeping eyes. Then he looked up at stared at Mr. Shiftlet. ‘She looks like an angel of Gawd,’ he murmured.”

B) “Mr. Shiftlet’s eye in the darkness was focused on a part of the automobile bumper that glittered in the distance. ‘Lady,’ he said, jerking his short arm up as if he could point with it to her house and yard and pump, ‘there ain’t a broken thing on this plantation that I couldn’t fix for you, one-arm jackleg or not. I’m a man,’ he said with a sullen dignity, ‘even if I ain’t a whole one.’”

C) “Lucynell was dressed up in a white dress that her mother had uprooted from a trunk and there was a Panama hat on her head with a bunch of red wooden cherries on the brim. Every now and then her placid expression was changed by a sly isolated little thought like a shoot of green in the desert.”

D) “‘Good evening,’ the old woman said. She was about the size of a cedar fence post and she had a man’s gray hat pulled down low over her head.”

3. What type of figurative language is used in the following passage? “The boy turned angrily in the seat. ‘You go to the devil!’ he cried. ‘My old woman is a flea bag and yours is a stinking pole cat!’”

A) Hyperbole

B) Personification

C) Metaphor

D) Simile

4. What literary device is illustrated by the following quote? “[Mr. Shiftlet] felt too that a man with a car had a responsibility to others and he kept his eye out for a hitch-hiker.”

A) Irony

B) Simile

C) Imagery

D) Personification

5. Which of the following best describes how Lucynell is treated by her mother and Mr. Shiftlet in the story?

A) As someone to cherish and protect

B) As an object to be traded for gain

C) As an independent person

D) As an object of ridicule

6. Which quotation best embodies the theme of The Spirit Versus the Law?

A) “The big rosy-faced girl followed him everywhere, saying ‘Burrttddt ddbirrrttdt,’ and clapping her hands. The old woman watched from a distance, secretly pleased. She was ravenous for a son-in-law.”

B) “He said that a man had to escape to the country to see the world whole and that he wished he lived in a desolate place like this where he could see the sun go down every evening like God made it to do.”

C) “‘You see that girl yonder?’ she asked, pointing to Lucynell who was sitting on the floor a foot away, watching him, her eyes blue in the dark. ‘If it was ever a man wanted to take her away, I would say, “No man on earth is going to take that sweet girl of mine away from me!” but if he was to say, “Lady, I don’t want to take her away, I want her right here,” I would say, “Mister, I don’t blame you none. I wouldn’t pass up a chance to live in a permanent place and get the sweetest girl in the world myself. You ain’t no fool” I would say.’”

D) “‘The body, lady, is like a house: it don’t go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like a automobile: always on the move, always…’

‘Listen, Mr. Shiftlet,’ she said, ‘my well never goes dry and my house is always warm in the winter and there’s no mortgage on a thing about this place. You can go to the courthouse and see for yourself.’”

7. Why does the hitchhiker tell Mr. Shiftlet to “go to the devil” and then jump out of the car?

A) He does not want to hear Mr. Shiftlet’s lecture.

B) He has reached his destination.

C) His actions serve as a symbol of lost innocence.

D) He is moved by Mr. Shiftlet’s words and decides not to leave home.

8. Considering the role of the car as a symbol in the story, what is the most likely reason that Flannery O’Connor chose for the car to be painted green?

A) To indicate jealousy

B) To reflect a connection to nature

C) To invoke ideas of money and selfishness

D) To convey fertility

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. Why do you think O’Connor includes the story’s title on road signs as Mr. Shiftlet is driving toward Mobile?

2. What is the significance of Mr. Shiftlet’s describing his mother as an “angel of Gawd,” repeating the phrase used by the boy in the diner?