1. Quiz #5
This week, I am directing you to find sources on the Sojourner Truth Library’s database,
The Gale Literature Resource Center. For this quiz, you are not being asked as much about
biographical information as you are about the themes and topics that appear in the authors’
stories.
Please note how the source citations are formatted. You will need to cite all outside sources
you have used when creating your biographical report on your author this week (see
Discussion Questions 1 & 2) as well as when you prepare your Lesson Plan (final essay) for
this class.
JOHN CHEEVER
Source Citation
"Revisiting John Cheever's Suburban Unrest." All Things Considered 24 Mar. 2009. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 23 June 2012.
You may also find this source (and listen to it) at National Public Radio (NPR).
URL: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102288330
1.According to the article, Cheever is “best known for the witty, sharp-edged stories he
originally published in The New Yorker about life _________.” [Fill in the blank]
2. John Cheever celebrates life in the suburbs. True or False.

2. 3. Susan Cheever, John Cheever’s daughter, describes the family as not fitting in very well with
their neighbors/community, calling them, “________________.”
4. Cheever did not have a formal education and was self-educated. True or False.
5. For what famous magazine did Cheever writer?
6. Susan Cheever finds the themes in her father’s work universal, noting that they contain “
____________” (fill in the blank).
JAMES BALDWIN
Source Citation
Flibbert, Joseph. "Sonny's Blues: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle
Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 June 2012.
1. When was “Sonny’s Blues” first published?
2. James Baldwin, who lived in Europe for many years, wrote that the Old World’s vision was "a
sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, in a word, of tragedy." According to
Baldwin, what was the New World’s vision?
3. How does the article’s author, Joseph Flibbert, define the blues?
4. What is it that Sonny and his brother need to learn?
5. According to Joseph Flibbert, Sonny’s brother has always identified strongly with his African
American heritage and celebrates it, finding strength in his roots. True or False

3. FLANNERY O’CONNOR
(note: This is an online source--watch the video too! The URL is:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/november-20-2009/flannery-
oconnor/5043/
Public Broadcasting Service. “Flannery O’Connor.” Religion and Ethics. PBS, 20 Nov. 2009.
Web. 2 May 2012.
1. Flannery O’Connor was a devout Roman Catholic. True or False?
2. According to Professor Ralph Wood, Flannery O’Connor was “Flannery O’Connor is the only
great ________ writer this nation has produced.” Fill in the blank.
3. Where did Flannery O’Connor “find” her characters? What did she call them--haunted by
what?
4. Father Thomas Joseph White notes that Flannery O’Connor never includes Roman Catholic
sacraments - - Baptism or the Mass - - in her stories. Instead, what kind of events occur in her
stories?
5. According to Rafael Roman, O’Connor is still influencing artists today. Who are some of the
people he lists?
SANDRA CISNEROS
Source Citation
Sarbanes, Janet. "An overview of The House on Mango Street." Literature Resource Center.
Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 June 2012.

4. 1. The House on Mango Street is a fictional autobiography that contains forty-four vignettes.
Why can they be included in an anthology of short stories if they are from a novel?
2. According to Sarbanes, The House on Mango Street is an example of what type of Chicano
fiction in terms of its theme?
3. Janet Sarbanes writes that “Mango Street is populated by people who feel _____”? How? Fill
in the blank.
4. Cisneros “perceives to be the two predominant and contradictory images of women in
Mexican culture.” What are these images?