Unit 1 Review
Terms and Applications
Terminology of Philosophy
 Philosophy—the study of truth in all its
various forms
 Epistemology—the study of how and what
we can truly know
 Metaphysics—the study of the fundamental
nature of reality and being
 Ethics—the study of right and wrong
 Aesthetics—the study of the nature and
effect of art
Critical Thinking Skills
 Metacognition—thinking about thinking
 Reflection—taking time rather than making a
snap decision; requires effort—integrity rather
than expedience (not always the proper way
to go)
 Reason, logic—rather than emotion; trying to
figure out the truly right answer rather than
simply what we want; being dispassionate
and objective, scientific method
 Source evaluation—being able to find and
evaluate sources of information
Terminology of Literary Criticism
 Magic Realism—literature containing a magical
element neither explained nor questioned. It includes
rich sensory description, distortion of linear time, and
mythical or folkloric elements
 Verisimilitude—the appearance of being real or
true; the elements of a story that make it seem real
 Willing Suspension of Disbelief—Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s theory that readers willingly “believe”
stories are real for aesthetic pleasure
 Doppelgangers—parallel, identical characters, often
used to represent a divided consciousness
 Foils—characters placed in similar situations in order
to enlighten readers about one of them
Terminology of Literary Criticism
 Metafiction—fiction about writing fiction, calling
attention to its own “fictionality”
 Transcendentalism—a branch of American
Romanticism. Major tenets:
 Spiritual, individual intuition is the only way to
understand the truth of the world;
 In order to “transcend” reality, individuals must
rely on their abilities to look inside themselves to
understand what is right and true for themselves;
 All knowledge begins with self-knowledge;
 Reason alone results in an incomplete
understanding of the universe.
Terminology of Literary Criticism
 Modernism—literary movement from the 1880s
– WWII which introduced radical
experimentation in literary technique, including
fragmentation of perspective, discontinuity of
narrative, disruption of syntax, and themes of
alienation and spiritual emptiness
 Flashback—interruption in the chronological
order of the story by a scene or image from the
past
 Back Story—history of a character, often not
shown or related, perhaps hinted at
Terminology of Literary Criticism
 Flash forward—interruption in the chronological
order of the story by a scene or image from the
future
 Motif—a repeated thematic element throughout
a story or other work of art
 Persona—a “mask” or personality a character
(or real person) adopts in preference to or to
cover up his/her real self
 Platonic Idealism—Plato’s belief that the reality
we can sense is only a poor reflection of an ideal
that exists on a higher plane
General Terms
 Progressive Era—a period in American history
(~1890s – 1920) when reformers moved by
outrage about present conditions optimistically
tried to improve society through political,
economic, and social reform
 The Prodigal Son—a religious parable in which
a son, given wealth, leaves home, wastes his
wealth, and returns humbly only to be welcomed
with open arms. Used figuratively in literature.
 Rapture—generally extreme happiness;
specifically, the direct ascension to heaven of
true believers
General Terms
 Free Will—the ability to choose your actions and
ultimately your fate for yourself
 Naturalism—detached, scientific view of
humans as controlled by environmental forces,
thus negating the possibility of free will and
perhaps the existence of god
 Determinism--the extreme of Naturalism.
Denies free will and sees humans as animalistic,
controlled more by biologic drives than logic and
thought—if we can’t see the soul, then it must
not exist.
General Terms
 Quid pro quo—”this for that”: an action
performed in expectation of a return action
 Nature vs. Nurture—the debate in psychology
over the relative roles of genetics and
environment in producing psychological
outcomes
 Ostentation (Ostentatious, adj.)—the gaudy,
excessive showing off of wealth
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
Which term above represents the following?
 “If I’m taught there is a God I’m responsible
to, I know I have to treat people right. But if
there’s no creator to answer to, it changes
your whole lifestyle. Then it’s just survival of
the fittest. That’s where our society is headed.
That’s why we have some of the problems we
do.”
 Literature creates a virtual world that we
respond to as if it were real.
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
Which term above represents the following?
 I know it is true because I am at one with
nature
 “Sleeping on” a difficult decision
 Considering who tells us a fact before we
decide to believe it
 Choosing a new car based on gas mileage
and reliability instead of how “cool” it looks
 The sum of all knowledge is the search for
truth in all its forms
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
Which term above represents the following?
 A woman crying at the end of a sad movie
 Teddy Roosevelt’s prosecution of monopolies
under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act
 The direct promotion of a student who truly
believes in the value of literature to English 11
without English 9 or 10
 Belief in intuition over reason
 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
 Both Romeo and Paris love Juliet
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
 One indication of this genre is Ray’s detailed





description of digging Annie’s garden
Fiction focusing metaphorically on writing fiction
Richard was metaphorically this
J.D. Salinger perhaps experienced this in fiction
Belief in “the force” resembles this belief
Intuition is this belief’s answer to the basic
question of epistemology
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
Which term above represents the following?
 As I was hanging by a branch from the cliff,
my life passed before my eyes . . .
 James Gatz’s view of himself
 Using stream of consciousness as a narrative
technique
 Showing off your huge engagement ring
 Are identical twins alike in every way?
 The frequent references to driving and car
accidents in The Great Gatsby
 Our “decisions” are only biological imperative
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
Which term above represents the following?
 Nick’s reverie about the first time Gatsby
kissed Daisy
 Nick’s sense of alienation from the world at
the end of The Great Gatsby is a
characteristic of this
 Contribute to my campaign and I’ll steer
business to your company
 Fuzzy picture only seen clearly on a U2 (jet
that flies at extreme altitude)
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
Which term above represents the following?
 You can do whatever you choose
 Gatsby magically deflects Wilson’s bullet and
it kills Tom
 What readers really would need to have if the
above had happened
 What the above lacks, therefore, if the
readers don’t accept it
 Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle is set in this era
 The Outsiders turns out to be Ponyboy’s
English theme
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
Which term represents the following?
 Someone isn’t listening right now—years later
he curses as he lays dying because he hadn’t
understood that his inattentiveness would
cause poor reading skills and lead to his
using his radio in the bathtub—he thought the
directions said he could
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
 What I must do is all that concerns me, not what
the people think. This rule, equally arduous in
actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the
whole distinction between greatness and
meanness. It is the harder because you will
always find those who think they know what is
your duty better than you know it. It is easy in
the world to live after the world's opinion; it is
easy in solitude to live after our own; but the
great man is he who in the midst of the crowd
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence
of solitude.—Ralph Waldo Emerson
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
The Hollow Men
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
- T.S. Eliot
I was my parents’ third child, which
proves that __________ makes perfect!
We Wear the Mask
WE wear the mask that grins and lies, We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
It hides our cheeks and shades our
To thee from tortured souls arise.
eyes,—
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
This debt we pay to human guile;
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
Shoeless Joe
 Why is Ray obsessed with baseball and
Shoeless Joe Jackson?
 In what ways is this novel typical of magic
realism?
 How are Annie and Karin fitting family for
Ray?
 How is Annie’s family not so fitting?
 Why does Mark want Ray’s farm?
 Explain the rules and dynamics of Ray’s
ballpark.
Shoeless Joe
 Why does Ray want his father to play on the
field?
 What happens on Ray’s trip to Boston? What
does this show us about the modern world he
lives in?
 Who is J.D. Salinger?
 How is Moonlight Graham different from the
other dead ballplayers who appear on the field?
 What does Eddie Scissons do to betray Ray?
Shoeless Joe
 What does Eddie do to betray baseball?
 How is he “punished” for this?
 In what ways is religion used as a motif throughout the
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novel?
How is the farm saved?
What does Salinger do at the end of the novel?
What does this have to do with the novel?
How are Richard and Ray similar and different?
Who created the world of the book?
What term does this question address?
The Great Gatsby
 What is Nick’s mood at the beginning of the
novel?
 What is his contradictory opinion of Gatsby?
 Why has Nick moved to West Egg?
 What is Nick’s salient characteristic at the
beginning of the novel?
 How does he know Tom and Daisy?
 Explain Myrtle.
 What are some of the rumors about Gatsby?
The Great Gatsby
 How does Gatsby find out Nick knows Daisy?
 What do we know for sure about Gatsby’s
past?
 Why does Nick like Jordan?
 What are some of the signs that Gatsby is not
who he says he is?
 What is Gatsby’s first reunion with Daisy like?
 What does Gatsby want Daisy to do?
 What happens at the hotel?
The Great Gatsby
 Why did Gatsby fail?
 What are the circumstances of the car
accident?
 What does Tom do for revenge?
 Why does Nick dump Jordan?
 Describe Gatsby’s funeral?
 What the heck does the ending mean?
 What characteristics of Realism can we find in
this book.