Questions About Tennessee Williams

The main purpose of the passage can best be described as an effort to:

• A. explain how and why Tennessee Williams's life suited writing in the Southern Gothic style.

• B. illustrate what the South was like at the time Tennessee Williams was writing his body of work.

• C. discuss how Tennessee Williams's life changed during his youth and young adulthood.

• D. describe the different elements of Southern Gothic style present in Tennessee Williams's works.

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CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

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The author's attitude toward the subject of the passage can best be characterized as:

• F. amused tolerance.

• G. detached interest.

• H. warm appreciation.

• J. mild skepticism.

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It can be reasonably inferred that the author believes Tennessee Williams's first great success came from a play published in:

• A. 1911

• B. 1948

• C. 1955

• D. 1958

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According to the sixth paragraph (lines 55–66), compared to modern standards of medicine, the prefrontal lobotomy is described as:

• F. more apt to produce symptom improvement, but at unacceptable risk to the patient.

• G. more apt to cause discomfort to the patient, but in exchange for reduced mental anguish.

• H. less apt to diminish schizophrenia, and likely to incapacitate the patient.

• J. less apt to treat mental disease, but with very manageable side effects.

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As described in the passage, the effect Tennessee's family had on him can best be summarized by which of the following statements?

• A. His family's impact can be safely overlooked because many other authors with less traumatic pasts have written in the Southern Gothic style.

• B. His family gave Tennessee his sense of melancholy, which faded in his prosperous later years.

• C. His family problems directly influenced his decades of writing and left Tennessee conflicted and distraught.

• D. The destruction of the Williams family caused Tennessee's plays to turn to darker themes that did not appeal well to audiences.

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When the author states that Southern Gothic literature does not make "blatant accusations" (line 21), he most likely means that the genre avoids:

• F. defending the abolition of slavery and other social reforms in the postbellum South.

• G. explicitly stating who among the characters are racist or otherwise morally corrupted.

• H. addressing any social problems in the South, preferring that the reader juxtapose his own opinion with the facts of the plot.

• J. righteous characters who overtly decry bigoted behavior of other characters.

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The passage indicates that Tennessee Williams's creative streak began because:

• A. he was trapped in an abusive household where his only refuge was in the fantasies he wrote.

• B. he was tortured by his sister's condition and took to writing as a way of searching for an explanation for her decline.

• C. he was severely ill as a boy and his mother took care to engage him in creative pursuits when he could not be physically active.

• D. he was inspired by the success of other family members and wished to capture the feeling in prose.

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According to the author, the primary characteristic of the Southern Gothic genre is that it:

• F. indirectly uses distant or malevolent characters to raise issues of social justice.

• G. incorporates the haunting religious themes of traditional Gothic literature into 20th-century Southern society.

• H. is the first American genre to be able to set aside the issue of slavery.

• J. carefully avoids volatile characters, in spite of plots set in tumultuous time periods.

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The author calls some of Tennessee Williams's characters embroiled in line 37 most likely because they:

• A. exist in the sultry Southern climate at a time where dress was uncomfortably conservative.

• B. seem doomed to create continual problems for themselves.

• C. deal with daunting personal problems or overwhelming moral quandaries.

• D. bear a larger-than-life aesthetic that makes their words and deeds uniquely impactful.

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The social structure mentioned in line 9 most directly refers to what the author sees as:

• F. the remnants of racism and inequality in Southern culture following the end of slavery.

• G. the unspoken disparity between rich landowners and poor farmhands at the turn of the 20th century.

• H. the uncommon compassion and hospitality for which the South has become famous.

• J. the system of vigilante justice that arose as a consequence of inadequate policing following the Civil War.

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