STUDY GUIDE: 4TH Six Weeks Exam
English 4 AP / Mrs. Ramos
Test Date: Wed. 2/16/11
TEST FORMAT
-
The test will cover The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
Objective portion: true / false, multiple choice, passage-based AP multiple choice, character matching (50%)
Subjective portion: essay response (50%)
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION
(These are only a sampling of the types of questions you should be asking yourself.)
- What does Edna awaken from? What does she awaken to?
- How many different “awakenings” does Edna experience? On what levels? Which are most profound?
- How does Chopin use Edna’s relationships with other women to characterize her?
- In what ways do the settings of the novel influence Edna’s behaviors?
- How does Edna’s relationship with her children shift throughout the novel?
- How would you characterize Edna’s relationships with the male characters (Léonce, Robert, Alcée, her
father (the Colonel), Dr. Mandelet)?
- How do natural elements (birds, the sea, etc.) come to be symbolic in the novel? What do they represent
universally? What do they represent in the context of The Awakening? In what ways do the symbols shift?
- What does The Awakening seem to reveal about the society and expectations of the time?
SAMPLE TEST QUESTIONS
True / False questions will ask you to recall facts:
1. (T/F) Léonce Pontellier is a lawyer.
2. (T/F) Victor Lebrun and Robert Lebrun are related by marriage.
3. (T/F) Robert visits the homes of both Mademoislle Reisz and Edna in New Orleans.
4. (T/F) Edna’s children are named Raoul and Mariequita.
5. (T/F) Edna moves into a house of her own.
Multiple choice questions will ask you to synthesize and interpret elements of the novel:
6. The narrator of The Awakening is ___.
A. Edna Pontellier
D. partially omniscient
rd
B. an unknown, 3 person observer
E. unreliable
C. Madame Ratignolle
AP-style questions will ask you to read a specific passage from the novel and answer multiple choice questions.
the passages will be reproduced for you on the exam.
The Colonel, with little sense of humor and of the fitness of things, related a somber episode of
those dark and bitter days in which he had acted a conspicuous part and always formed a central
figure. Nor was the Doctor happier in his selection, when he told the old, ever new and curious story of
the waning of a woman’s love, seeking strange, new channels, only to return to its legitimate source
after days of fierce unrest. It was one of the many little human documents which had been unfolded to
him during his long career as a physician. The story did not seem especially to impress Edna. She had
one of her own to tell, of a woman who paddled away with her lover one night in a pirogue and never
came back. They were lost amid the Baratarian Islands, and no one ever heard of them or found trace
of them from that day to this. It was a pure invention. She said that Madame Antoine had related it to
her. That, also, was an invention. Perhaps it was a dream she had had. But every glowing word seemed
real to those who listened. They could feel the hot breath of the Southern night; they could hear the
long sweep of the pirogue through the glistening moonlit water, the beating of the birds’ wings, rising
startled from among the reeds in the salt-water pools; they could see the faces of the lovers, pale, close
together, rapt in oblivious forgetfulness, drifting into the unknown.
The champagne was cold, and its subtle fumes played fantastic tricks with Edna’s memory that night.
(p. 75-76)
7. All of the following are significant differences between Edna’s story and that of the Colonel’s EXCEPT ___.
A. Edna’s story is fictional and the Colonel’s story is based on his own experience
B. the Colonel’s story has a finite conclusion and Edna’s does not
C. the effect on the listeners
D. Edna is not impressed with the Colonel’s story
E. Edna’s goal is to depict the passion of love and the Colonel’s goal is to demonstrate its morality
8. As it is used in this passage, the word “waning” means ___.
A. interest B. disappearance C. exploration D. ignorance E. warmth
Essay questions will focus on the novel as a whole. You will be allowed to use your copy of the text for the essay
question(s).
The Awakening is often called a work of “literary realism”. The Realist
movement opposed the idea that literature should depict only ideal or
romanticized characters / situations and sought to show life with its complexities
and everyday manner. In a complete, thesis-driven essay, explain how Kate
Chopin uses realism to illuminate the character of Edna.
IDEAS FOR STUDY
-
What have your English / reading teachers been having you do with what you read for the past 12 years?
DO THAT FOR YOURSELF! It wasn’t work. It was training. Part of this assignment is seeing if you can study
literature autonomously since you might never have another literature class.
-
Use your notes from the 1st 6 wks short story study to work through the literary aspects of the novel
(symbol, characterization, mood / setting, theme, etc.).
-
Make notes on the characters, their actions and their relationship to Edna.
-
Read the pieces that have been included in the back of the book as “Related Readings”. Although there
will not be questions specific to these passages on the test, each ties into The Awakening and illuminates
it in a different way. As you read them, ponder how the piece fits into the novel.
-
Work through answers to the sample questions on this study guide.
-
Explore some of the links @ mrsramos.com/id101.htm
-
You can seek to clarify your ideas about the text with me just about any time—in person before or after
school, or through email.