Engl 345 Final Exam
Jeffrey Absher
xxx-xx-xxxx
1)
From The Shipping News: Quoyle is the rope, and in each chapter, the knot described at the beginning has
some bearing on Quoyle’s life. In this chapter, Jack “dies” and reawakens to sign his lobster license over to
his son, and Coyle is feeling that he has reached a milestone in his life. Proulx is saying that though this
particular story may be ending that parts of Quoyle’s history are not contained in this story, and that he and
Wavey have a future. The central theme illustrated is that human lives are similar to rope, and may be
twisted in many different manners. For example Chapter 32 speaks of a “Hairy Devil” or a snarl of rope
and allowing it to “unfold itself” as does Quoyle’s life once he gives in to letting love happen again.
2)
This is an example of the ship of state analogy. Johnson is saying that the United States and its culture can
infect those that it touches. In this case, the ship of state and its government cause the fall from grace of the
Allmuseri tribe. The theme or the concept being illustrated is that survival sometimes requires setting aside
ones morals. The same concept appears when the captain explains his cannibalism. His survival is
dependant on him doing something that is distasteful and immoral.
3)
This is an explanation of the routes of Venice. Venice is a symbol for the Henri’s mind and soul; it is a city
of madmen. Henri is unused to freedom and gambling, he tends to prefer a regimented life. On page 152 “I
don’t want to see any more of the world. The cities of the interior are vast and do not lie on any map.”
Henri does not want to explore any more of his mind and soul. He is not prepared to do something
unplanned or to go another way.