Exam II
Part I and Part II cover the texts:
Edith Wharton Summer
Richard Wright Blackboy
T.S. Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and “The Waste Land”
William Faulkner “Barn Burning” and “A Rose for Emily”
Part III and Part IV cover the above texts as well as:
William Dean Howells The Rise of Silas Lapham
William Dean Howells “Editha,”
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman “A Poetess”
Robert Frost “Mending Wall,” “Death of a Hired Man,” “Home Burial,” “A Hundred Collars”
Part I: Identification. This section tests your ability to read carefully and to link textual details to
larger themes. Choose 3 of 5 items below. In three sentences max, 1) identify text, 2) show how
the item works in the basic plot of the text, and 3) show how this character or piece of dialogue or
object or place participates in a theme in the book 10 minutes, 24 pts (2 for identifying the text; 3 for
showing basic plot info; 3 for pointing to a theme it participates in).
Part II: Explication This section tests your ability to interpret significant passages from a text.
Choose 1 of the 2 passages below. In a paragraph, 1) identify the author and the text, 2) identify
a clear theme in the passage; remember a theme is the book’s stance on a certain issue, 3) analyze
the passage in terms of this theme, supporting this theme with at least two specifics. For these
specifics, look at the language (connotations of words, repetition), look at the setting, look at the
images, look at the narrator’s voice (humor, irony, sympathy), look at the characters (how do they
function as representations of this theme; how do they voice this theme).
25 minutes 30 pts (10 points for stating a clear theme, 20 points for supporting this theme with at least
two details from the passage)
Part III: Definition. This part of the exam tests how well you’ve grasped the major historical,
cultural, and social concepts of the course. Write a short answer response for 2 of 4 items below.
1) Explain the concept and 2) show how it plays out in any one of the texts we’ve read this
semester. 15 minutes, 26 pts (5 points for defining it and 8 points for showing how it plays out in
one of the texts we’ve read this semester)
Cult of domesticity/true woman
Urbanization
Revolt from the village
Restrained or Victorian masculinity/passionate masculinity
Misogyny of text
Alienation (as a result of the loss of traditional rules/communities due to modernization or other
social forces)
Crisis of representation
Part IV: Essay answer: Choose 1 of the 2 following themes and, in a paragraph or two support it
with two of the provided texts. Use 2 specifics from each text (scenes, examples) that show how
this theme plays out in particular in each text. 20 min 20 pts
Themes will come from 4 most important things of Rise of Silas Lapham, Summer, and Blackboy
and from the list of connections we brainstormed on March 19th.
Example:
Early American literature often upholds freedom as an ideal (criticizing America when it denies
freedom). Trace this theme through two of the following four texts.
Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl
The Coquette
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
“The Laboring Class”