ENGLISH IV final exam study guide (USE THIS AND ADD FROM
YOUR NOTES)
Films/Novels: (see your notes for additional information!)
Siddhartha—Siddhartha goes on a journey to find enlightenment (constant feeling of
inner peace)
 He experiences the material world, gets caught up in it (gambling, drinking),
wants to end his life and he hears “om.”
 He learns from the river, the ferryman—learns to listen, unity of all beings
(all connected and one)
 Learns from his son—he’s just like all people (child-people)
 Once he experiences “oneness”—reaches enlightenment
Five People You Meet in Heaven—Eddie—died and met 5 influential people in
heaven who impacted his life
 Realized he was atoning for killing the little girl
 Job ensured children’s safety
The Art of Racing in the Rain—Denny and Eve were married, had Enzo the dog
 Eve died of brain cancer
 Eve’s parents wanted to keep Zoe (their daughter) because they said Denny
was unfit
 Theme: make adjustments in life to stay on track
 In the end, Denny gets custody of Zoe (after a long fight)
Razor’s Edge—Larry Darrell—stock broker, goes into WWI and sees death and
suffering and he is changed
 Larry—search for meaning of life
 Finds money and materialism is not important but experiences are very impt.
 Goes to India—has enlightenment experience (hears chorus of chanting
monks)—Life is about living it, not reading about it
 Comes back to world and treats others with compassion and kindness
 He does not judge others
 Sees Sophie (prostitute/drugs) and she changes and they fall in love
Slum Dog : Karma—Salim made wrong choices while Jamal made right choices
Ex) Salim’s karma was to take care of Jamal, he killed people, kicked out Jamal, died
in bathtub of money BUT saved Latika and let her free
 Jamal—does the right thing, Salim—motivated by power and money, older
brother/corrupt. Latika—orphaned young girl who falls in love with Jamal
 Jamal—life experiences educated him, he was in the right place at the right
time (his destiny—to be with Latika)
Life of Pi—Why a person could believe in God
 Pi Patel stranded on boat—created an event in his mind (animals
represented different people)
 Provides a peaceful explanation of the unknown
 Survival is miracle and a miracle is brought by some spiritual power
Life is Beautiful (theme and structure make it modern)
 Isolation, alienation, dehumanization
 Tragic comedy
 No real introduction to Holocaust (strife of individuals)
 Theme=alienation, despair/in concentration camp
 Lack of transition between time periods (time and mood)
Julius Caesar—politics
 Concerned with good of the state, and good of Rome
 Would kill a friend if needed for good of Rome
 Conflict of one’s duty to state vs. one’s duty to a friend
Les Miserables—Javert was the police officer who was on a relentless pursuit to
bring Jean ValJean, a convicted criminal, down. Jean ValJean served his time and
changed through the course of the film
 He became mayor, helped the working class
 “adopted” Cozzette after her mother Fantine (prostitute) died
Literary Movements
Realism (2 Friends, The Bet, Les Mis)
 Pessimistic view of the world
 Examines social issues—working class people and hardships
 Slice of life
 No sugar coating—confronted harsh realities of 19th century
 Graphic details
Naturalism (Two Friends)
 Heredity, chance, and environment determine a person’s fate
 One faces fate with dignity
Symbolism
 An object represents something larger than itself (suggested meaning
through symbols)
Modernism (Life is Beautiful)
 Alienation
 Despair
 Often abandoned traditional plot structure
 Search for identity
 Disconnection from past/tradition
 Theme is implied rather than stated
 Theme=disillusionment
Romanticism
 Connection between man and nature
 Inspiration from imagination, inner feelings, and emotions
 Interests in ordinary people
 Favored use of simple, common language
 Fascination with supernatural
 Sense of optimism
 Desire for social change
Short Stories
“Snapshopts of a Wedding”—personal freedom, searching for change
 Cultural change—traditional African society going through change
o Abandonment of traditional value
 “photos” (quick moment of action) of a wedding reveal a society in conflict
 theme: tradition vs. modern; cultural change—and conflict that arises when
they go through that change
 Neo-new ideas, educated, wants to get a job, make money/arrogant and rude
and does not respect the elders in the tribe
 Kego—his conflict is over which person to marry (he picked Neo and his
family wanted him to marry Mathada)
o His mind is with new school, wants to marry an educated woman
o He is old school—heart with Mathada….should I marry someone with
his same traditional values?)
o Both women are pregnant and in the end he marries Neo
 Mathada—traditional tribal woman
Girl (modernism)—written in demands or commands from mom to daughter
 Non-traditional plot structure
 See conflict of old vs. new ways
 Mom trying to school daughter on how to be a proper woman (how to wash
clothes, cook, iron, sweep)
 Girls ways did not please mom’s ways (conflict—suggests girl acted in a way
her mother did not approve of)
War (modernism)—story of people on the train
 Lady upset over son going to war
 All people talking about children going to war
 Man said you should be proud of children, let them go. His son died and he
was proud.
 Illusion that it’s heroic to die in battle=be proud
Marriage is a Private Affair (modernism)
 Nnameka was in love with Nene
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Nnameka—son
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Theme—traditions, new vs. old ways
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Nnameka married out of tribe—father disowns him
Nene—Nnameka wife = love marriage
Okeke—Nene’s father, does not approve of marriage, traditional guy, believes
wife should work at home, quiet, Christian
Nene is from a different tribe than father and son. Traditionally, father picks
bride. She is a teacher, has a voice,
At end, Nene wrote to Okeke to see grandchildren. He realizes he wants to
see grandchildren.
A Walk to the Jetty from Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
 Memories, coming of age story (girl leaving home to become independent)
 Girl leaves home and she is walking to the jetty and reminiscing about her
past
 She has fond memories but she remembers her mother as “squeezing the life
out of her”—she is ready to grow up but her mother still had control over her
and she was very overpowering in her daughter’s life
 Break from the past to experience new events
The Bet (realism—greed, pessimistic view of life)
 Banker and lawyer make a bet/which is worse, life in prison or execution?
 Lawyer goes to jail voluntarily after making $2 million bet w/ banker
 While in prison, he read, learned, thought a lot, searched for meaning of life
 In the end, the lawyer did not take the money b/c he knew it would not make
him happy/materialistic; his final perception of humans was pessimistic,
dark
 Naturalism, man does not change—most people’s priorities are out of order;
people are materialistic, lost touch with the meaning of life
Two Friends (realism—death, destruction, products of war, naturalism—
environment and heredity shape who you are and control fate)
 Brutal nature of war
 2 men whose lives were interrupted because they were forced to become
soldiers in war
 fear, surrounded by enemy but they reminisce about “good old days” and
they go out to fish
 men are captured but will be free if they tell the password
 symbols=fish represent helplessness, get caught and eaten, just like the 2
men are helpless, caught, killed

IRONY=2 men plan on catching/eating fish but the fish will have their turn,
eat the men
Survival in Auschwitz—
 Primo Levi’s account of Holocaust, dehumanization, isolation
Federigo’s Falcon—(romanticism—sacrifice)
 Federigo cared so much for Mona he sacrificed everything he had for her
 Mona sacrifices her pride, to ask for the falcon but he already sacrificed the
falcon (fed it to them)
Other works to study:
Machiavelli—author of The Prince, political theorist
 No morality in politics
 Stay in power, any way you can—even if it’s immoral (even if it’s using brutal
force to maintain power0
 Don’t want people to hate you
 Means justify the ends—doesn’t matter how a leader gets what he wants, as
long as he gets it
A Doll’s House (women were treated differently in society at this time—individual)
 Nora (wife) and Torvald’s (husband) unequal relationship
o Male dominance
o Women—couldn’t borrow $$,
o Nora forged her father’s name for a loan
 Could not develop in the confines of her marriage
 She married him lbecause he was like her father, she was not happy in their
marriage. She had to go off and find herself for her own happiness
 Themes: transformation, sexism, identity and search for self, human rights
The Metamorphosis—change, transformation
 Main characters: Gregor, sister, mother, father
 Gregor supports his family and one day he wakes up as a bug
 Physical appearance affects the way you act
 Dehumanization—from boss, father….
 Themes: isolation, alienation, dehumanization
 At the end, Gregor dies and his family is free and reborn. They change their
lives. Gregor had to die so his family could grow and survive