Survey Lit Final Exam Study Guide
*This is not the exact test. Some of these questions are simply to help you with the vocabulary of the test. Do not assume that
every definition on this study guide is the right answer.
Part I: “A&P” by John Updike
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Name four themes that this story entails.
Describe how gender is portrayed in the story.
Find a metaphor, simile, and motif.
Find three tones in this story and identify when they are apparent.
Part II: “A Good Man is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor
1. Think of 5 adjectives to describe the grandmother.
2. Where in the story does it tell you that she is any of these adjectives?
3. Choose two of the following literary devices and tie them to the short story: metaphor, foreshadowing,
symbolism, personification.
4. Name three themes.
Part III: “Elena” by Pat Mora
1. What does the word “end-stopped” mean in reference to a line of poetry?
2. How is language (Spanish vs. English) referenced and used in the poem?
3. Name two themes that the poem addresses.
Part IV: “First Hour” by Sharon Olds
1. How is social identity represented in the poem?
2. Describe the tone of the essay.
3. Describe the speaker of the essay.
**Side note: When the test refers to narrator, they really mean speaker.
Part V: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
1. What does the word tragic flaw mean?
2. What are the different types of conflicts in the play?
3. Review all vocabulary from the play: assail, asphyxiate, beguile, bland, chide, courted, enmity, gulch, idolatry,
inauspicious, inundate, jocund, pernicious, portentous, prodigious, profane, rancor, sachet, sepulcher, valise
4. How is irony used in the play?
5. Name two instances of foreshadowing?
6. Explain light vs. dark imagery?
7. Know how to find examples of allusion, metaphor, alliteration, personification, hyperbole, simile.
Part VI: Zeitoun by David Eggers
1. Review the plot of the text.
2. Review all vocabulary you discussed in groups including: feigned, ubiquitous, fusillade, contraflow, levee,
dabble, renounce, succumb, presumption, nepotism, conviction, harlequins, legions, concede, infraction
3. Describe how three themes are portrayed in the text.
Part VII: Nelson Mandela’s Speech on being released from prison
1. Review the speech and the history behind it
2. What does the word “diction” mean
Part IX: “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Sara Teasdale
1. Name three themes.
2. What do the words allegory and analogy mean?
Part X: “Poem By a Yellow Woman” by Sook Ryu
1. Find this poem on the internet and read it.
2. What is the overall theme of the poem?
3. What is the author’s tone like?
4. Explain the title of the poem?
Grammar Concepts (consider using the website “Chompchomp.com”):
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Subject-verb agreement
Prepositional phrases
Semicolons
Comma usage
Interjections
Dialogue punctuation
Parentheses usage
Its vs. it’s
Possessive use of apostrophe (plural and singular)
Colons
Parallel structure