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Quiz for American Voices: Urban Writers Describe Small-Town America

Question

1. Which two American perspectives were the characters of Carol Kennicott and Bea Sorenson supposed to represent in this excerpt from Sinclair Lewis’s 1920 novel Main Street?

Kennicott represented the eastern perspective and Sorenson the midwestern one.

Kennicott represented the urban perspective and Sorenson the rural one.

Kennicott represented the elite perspective and Sorenson the poor one.

Kennicott represented the native-born perspective and Sorenson the immigrant one.

Correct. The answer is b. Lewis intended Carol Kennicott, a newcomer to Gopher Falls from a big city, to represent an urban perspective on small-town life. He intended Bea Sorenson, a newcomer to Gopher Falls from a distant farm, to represent a rural perspective on small-town life.

Incorrect. The answer is b. Lewis intended Carol Kennicott, a newcomer to Gopher Falls from a big city, to represent an urban perspective on small-town life. He intended Bea Sorenson, a newcomer to Gopher Falls from a distant farm, to represent a rural perspective on small-town life.

Question

2. Like the fictional Carol Kennicott, Anzia Yezierska grew up in a large urban area and moved to a small town in Ohio during her young adulthood. What might account for the differences in their experiences of small-town life?

Yezierska was a new college student and not an experienced adult like Kennicott.

Yezierska came from New York, whereas Kennicott likely came from a city like Chicago.

Yezierska, unlike Kennicott, was open minded about new experiences.

Yezierska experienced city life as a poor child of immigrants, not as a privileged white woman like Kennicott.

Correct. The answer is d. Yezierska was a child of immigrants who grew up in the crowded and poor Lower East Side of New York. Coming from that environment, she found small-town life clean, refreshing, and peaceful. Kennicott, the wife of a doctor, likely came from a privileged urban background that did not expose her to the seamy side of city life, which led her to experience small-town life as limited, provincial, and suffocating.

Incorrect. The answer is d. Yezierska was a child of immigrants who grew up in the crowded and poor Lower East Side of New York. Coming from that environment, she found small-town life clean, refreshing, and peaceful. Kennicott, the wife of a doctor, likely came from a privileged urban background that did not expose her to the seamy side of city life, which led her to experience small-town life as limited, provincial, and suffocating.

Question

3. The excerpts from Lewis’s novel and Yezierska’s autobiography are examples of which 1920s phenomenon?

The Harlem Renaissance

The culture wars

Intellectual modernism

Consumer culture

Correct. The answer is c. These two authors’ works, which offered new perspectives on long-standing assumptions about civilization, progress, and the alleged superiority of Western culture, stand as examples of intellectual modernism.

Incorrect. The answer is c. These two authors’ works, which offered new perspectives on long-standing assumptions about civilization, progress, and the alleged superiority of Western culture, stand as examples of intellectual modernism.

Question

4. Robert and Helen Lynd’s depiction of small-town life in the Midwest in the 1920s serves as evidence for which of the following?

The impact of prohibition on American life

The influence of consumer culture on American families

The reasons for the Ku Klux Klan’s appeal to midwesterners

The influence of immigrants on native-born families in the Midwest

Correct. The answer is b. This excerpt from Middletown analyzed the ways consumer culture affected Americans in small midwestern towns, positing that most families were willing to borrow money in order to buy goods such as telephones and cars.

Incorrect. The answer is b. This excerpt from Middletown analyzed the ways consumer culture affected Americans in small midwestern towns, positing that most families were willing to borrow money in order to buy goods such as telephones and cars.