Details That Reveal Perspective: Short Fiction Practice Test
•15 QuestionsRead the excerpt and answer the question.
At the funeral, the flowers were too bright, as if they hadn’t been told what day it was. People hugged me and said they were sorry, their voices soft with borrowed grief. I thanked them automatically. When it was my turn to approach the casket, I walked slowly, counting each step. My aunt whispered that he “looked peaceful.” I stared at my grandfather’s face and tried to find peace there, but all I saw was waxy stillness. Death, I thought, is the only event people insist on calling ‘beautiful’ so they don’t have to call it what it is. I touched the edge of the casket and pulled my hand back quickly, as if I’d been caught doubting.
Which interpretation best explains what the bolded details reveal about the narrator’s perspective?
Read the excerpt and answer the question.
At the funeral, the flowers were too bright, as if they hadn’t been told what day it was. People hugged me and said they were sorry, their voices soft with borrowed grief. I thanked them automatically. When it was my turn to approach the casket, I walked slowly, counting each step. My aunt whispered that he “looked peaceful.” I stared at my grandfather’s face and tried to find peace there, but all I saw was waxy stillness. Death, I thought, is the only event people insist on calling ‘beautiful’ so they don’t have to call it what it is. I touched the edge of the casket and pulled my hand back quickly, as if I’d been caught doubting.
Which interpretation best explains what the bolded details reveal about the narrator’s perspective?