Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Reading Check

1. What was Hulga’s birth name?

2. In what subject did Hulga earn her PhD?

3. How did Hulga lose her leg?

4. What is the Bible salesman’s name?

5. What symptom of pregnancy does Mrs. Freeman frequently discuss when talking about her daughter Carramae?

6. What does the Bible salesman take from Hulga at the end of the story?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do the characters in the story use the phrase “good country people”?

2. Why does Mrs. Hopewell believe philosophy was an unfit field of study for Hulga?

3. What is ironic about the Bibles the salesman carries with him? What do the items tell us about his true character?

Recommended Next Reads

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor

• This short story describes a tense bus trip that Julian, an arrogant and distant son, takes with his bigoted mother.
• Shared topics include conflicts between a mother and child; religion, race, and class; and the American South.