Southern Literature Classics 2 Quiz

Answer: He leaves her sleeping at a lunch counter in Alabama.

Lucynell, a deaf mute who has never been away from her mother for two days before, is left at the Hot Spot, a roadside diner, while Shiftlet journeys on in Lucynell's mother's automobile. While the boy behind the counter describes Lucynell sleeping at the counter as looking "like an angel of Gawd," Shiftlet calls her a hitchhiker and leaves her behind.

In a classic bit of O'Connor dark humor, Shiftlet later asks God to "Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!" and immediately, "fantastic raindrops" begin to pelt Shiftlet's car as it speeds to Tuscaloosa.

Answer: "Sanctuary"

"Sanctuary" is Faulkner's most sensational novel. Its lurid detail and rough mimicking of the detective novel form are possibly attributable to the fact that Faulkner spent time writing screenplays in Hollywood around the time he wrote "Sanctuary." In fact, two film adaptations of the novel had been made by the time of Faulkner's death.

Answer: "1939"

"1939" is a delightful story of young men discovering just how young they are when confronted with adult sophistication and challenges. The story ends just as the real trip supposedly ended -- with the two young men, unwilling to admit their shame to each other, almost getting thrown off the train back to Kenyon for engaging in a cathartic shoving match.

Answer: "Evening Hawk"

This stanza is from Robert Penn Warren's outstanding poem, "Evening Hawk," which uses stark imagery to evoke existential meaning from the course of a hawk across the twilight. Although Warren is best known for his Pulitzer-winning novel "All the King's Men," he actually won the Pulitzer twice more for two collections of poetry. "Old Photograph of the Future" and "Heart of Autumn" are two of Warren's other famous works; "Ode to the Confederate Dead" is by Allen Tate, a remarkable work in its own right.

Answer: True

This aspect of the novel was highly criticized when it was published in 1967, at the apex of the Black Power movement. Styron, who is white, was denounced as unfit to approach such a racially-charged incident from what purported to be a black man's perspective. Nevertheless, the novel's unabashed exploration of racial animus has moved readers for decades.

Answer: a collection of figurines kept by Laura

The collection of glass figurines, largely animals, is used to highlight Laura's physical and emotional fragility. When Jim leaves his "date" with Laura after revealing he is engaged to be married, he takes with him as a "souvenir" from Laura the broken glass unicorn he damaged during his time at the apartment -- the horn fallen off, a fantasy brought crashing back to reality.

Answer: the land.

Blatantly mimicking the style of Genesis, Sams uses simple, organic language to give the reader an idea of the basic values of his central character, a boy growing up in the Georgia Piedmont. In a humorous and telling inversion, the novel tells us that "[s]hortly thereafter was the father. The boy knew this with certainty."

Answer: Laurel

The book's exploration of Laurel's past and its relationship to her home is a powerful statement about the importance of place in our lives. "The Optimist's Daughter" also contains one of the most humorous funeral scenes in Southern literature, reminding the reader that not all Southerners are genteel.

Answer: Vardaman

Vardaman comes to this conclusion after deciding that his mother is not, indeed, a rabbit that the family will cook for dinner. Vardaman's conclusion that his mother is a fish seems much more reasonable (for a young boy struggling to understand death) once Addie's casket floats down a flooded river later in the novel, one of the many moments where consciousness supersedes time in "As I Lay Dying."

Answer: Henry Timrod

One of the few "Confederate poets," Timrod achieved this distinction despite a general lack of polemic in his work (unlike many of the others). His best-known work is "Ethnogenesis," written on the meeting of the Confederate Congress. Longstreet is best known for his work, "Georgia Scenes," which describes figures in Southern life in the antebellum period. Ransom, a far more accomplished poet than Timrod, worked in the 20th century. Sidney Lanier, known for "The Marshes of Glynn," was a contemporary of Timrod's, but would only have been 18 at the time the war began.

Answer: Carolina Military College

Carolina Military College is the name of the school in the novel. However, Conroy graduated from The Citadel himself and has openly admitted that his alma mater was his inspiration. Both the fictional and the actual schools are located in Charleston, South Carolina.

Answer: Three

The first, Charles Hamilton, dies in a training camp after joining the Confederate forces. The second, Frank Kennedy, is shot through the head during a raid on Shantytown to avenge Scarlett's near-rape. The third, Rhett Butler, leaves her after he decides he doesn't give a damn.

Answer: Dory Cantrell

"Oral History" is the story of an urban descendent of a mountain family, the Cantrells, who returns to record the family's history from the words of the residents and relatives still remaining in Hoot Owl Holler. What Jennifer, the citified relative, finds is a rich and mysterious legacy of words and deeds that immerse the reader in this rural landscape and among its colorful people.

Answer: Tea Cake

Janie associates pear blossoms and nature imagery generally with love and sexual attraction, and these images come bursting forth when she meets Tea Cake, who sweeps her off her feet by treating her like everyone else and by showing her what true love really feels like. Logan, her first husband, was her arranged husband at a young age and considered her little more than a slave to his will. Joe Starks, her second husband and the ambitious mayor of a small town, treated her like a trophy and never allowed her to gain her independence. Tea Cake's ways, while perhaps unstable, help Janie get in touch with her black identity, particularly during her time in the Everglades.

Answer: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

"Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" was rejected by Fortune and several other potential publishers for its biting social commentary and went out of print only a few years after it was originally published as a book. In the 1960s, however, it roared back onto the scene, gaining the spotlight that its obsessed author always thought it deserved. Agee won the Pulitzer Prize for his largely-autobiographic unfinished novel, "A Death in the Family," but his writing in "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," combined with Evans' stark and unforgiving photographs, is much more powerful.