Literary Analysis Quiz

Read the excerpt: 'When I think of the hometown of my youth, all that I seem to remember is dust — the brown, crumbly dust of late summer — arid, sterile dust that gets into the eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat, and between the toes of barefoot children.' Which literary device is used most prominently in this passage?

• Simile

• Metaphor

• Imagery

• Irony

Read the excerpt: 'Memory is an abstract painting—it does not present things as they are but rather as they feel.' What does this metaphor suggest about the narrator’s view of the past?

• She remembers her past with complete accuracy.

• Her memories are idealized and objective.

• Her memories are shaped more by emotion than reality.

• She tries to forget everything from her past.

Read the excerpt: 'I cursed and spat on the ground—my favorite gesture of phony bravado.' What does this line reveal about Lizabeth’s character?

• She is genuinely brave and tough.

• She is mocking her friends.

• She is aware that her behavior is a performance.

• She is trying to intimidate adults.

Read the excerpt: 'Miss Lottie’s marigolds were perhaps the strangest part of the picture. They did not fit in with the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard.' What do the marigolds most likely symbolize in this context?

• Nature’s dominance over humans

• Rebellion against society

• Beauty and hope in a bleak environment

• Miss Lottie’s insanity

Read the excerpt: 'I had indeed lost my mind, for all the smoldering emotions of that summer swelled in me and burst—the great need for my mother who was never there, the hopelessness of our poverty, the bewilderment of being neither child nor woman.' Which theme is best demonstrated in this passage?

• Fear of adulthood

• Identity and transformation

• Community versus individual

• Justice and revenge

Read the excerpt: 'The old woman was the only person I had ever heard of who had a son who was not quite right in the head.' What is the narrator’s tone in this description of Miss Lottie’s son?

• Sympathetic

• Mocking

• Detached

• Humorous

Read the excerpt: 'We children, of course, were only vaguely aware of the extent of our poverty. The realities of our situation were hidden in the grimness of our daily lives, and the fact that our lives were barren of anything but the basics was not important.' What structural feature is present in this reflection?

• Flashback

• Foreshadowing

• Expository commentary

• Chronological sequencing

Read the excerpt: 'The world had lost its boundary lines. That familiar, unkind, dependable darkness had descended again, the darkness that we children knew so well. It was the darkness that had always been a part of our lives.' Which theme is reinforced by this passage?

• The loss of innocence

• The fear of violence

• The oppression of poverty

• The cruelty of family

Read the excerpt: 'Then I lost control, even as Joey was pulling at my shirt sleeve, and I leapt furiously into the mounds of marigolds and pulled madly, trampling and uprooting the flowers, screaming and crying.' This moment is best described as which element of plot structure?

• Exposition

• Climax

• Rising action

• Resolution

Read the excerpt: 'In that humiliating moment I looked beyond myself and into the depths of another person. This was the beginning of compassion, and one cannot have both compassion and innocence.' What does the narrator learn through this experience?

• How to stand up to adults

• That violence solves problems

• That true maturity involves empathy

• That she was right to destroy the flowers