Study Guide for Final Exam
Multicultural Literature w/ Mrs. Bennett and Ms. Cook
Test Date: Week of 5.14-18
Current Texts
“Serving in Florida” by Barbara Ehrenreich (we may or may not get to this one)
1. How is waitressing “seductive” and how does this perpetuate the trap of minimum wage?
2. What extended metaphor does Ehrenreich use to describe Jerry’s and why is it significant?
3.What message does the writer want her readers to walk away with (i.e. think purpose of exposing this
condition of life)?
4. What does the eEhrenreich’s essay say about contemporary American society? (Consider the people and
circumstances presented throughout.)
“A Clack of Tiny Sparks” by Bernard Cooper
1. What is the overall purpose of “A Clack of Tiny Sparks”?
2. Explain the metaphor of the speaker’s mother, “whose hazel eyes were the eyes of the world” as well as
the metaphors of the “tiny clack” and “flame that could not be doused” and why these are significant to his
self-identification.
3. What is the purpose of the author’s use of metaphors? Consider the topic and the audience of the essay.
4. What significant purpose(s) does Theresa’s character serve in furthering themes in “A Clack of Tiny
Sparks”?
5. According to class discussion, why does the speaker ask his mother what a “fag” is?
“On Compassion” by Barbara Ascher
1. Read the first line of Ascher’s essay. How does this speak to the writer’s style and/or intent for her
reader?
2. Understand the similes discussed and their purposes in Ascher’s essay.
3. How does Ascher’s main argument concerning compassion relate to Mairs’ personal philosophy on the
same?
4. What self-serving (vs. selfless) purpose does the Mayor of New York’s “humanity” serve?
“On Being a Cripple” by Nancy Mairs
1. Explain George Orwell’s Quote (p.232) and why Mairs prefers to be called “crippled” to “differentlyabled”?
2. How is a Cripple’s insecurity and “fake”ness cyclical according to Mairs?
3. Understand the change in tone of Mair’s essay. How is change in tone connected to the stages of her
disease? How, too, does it relate Mairs to her readers?
4. What is the significance of the quote “I am not a disease”?
5. What is significant about the use of the word “transaction” on page 57 of Ascher’s essay?
“On Dumpster Diving” by Lars Eighner
1. Know the practical art as well as the abstract lessons of Dumpster Diving.
2. What is deplorable about scroungers versus scavengers?
3. How do we know the speaker is educated?
4. What are the stages of Dumpster Diving?
“How to Watch Your Brother Die” by Michael Lassell
1. How, stylistically, was this poem written? Why is the style significant to the subject of the poem?
2. Consider the use of repetition and why in each case that repetition is significant to the overall meaning
of the poem.
3. Be able to discuss the evident progression of acceptance on the part of the speaker using textual clues.
4. How does Lassell personify the heterosexual attitude of his time? Be able to give specific examples of
each “person”ification and the inherent attitude therein.
“On Borrowed Time: An Aids Memoir” by Paul Monette
1. Discuss the purpose of similes/metaphors etc.
2. What is the overall tone of the memoir? What are some of the reasons for Paul’s attitude?
3. What were some of the misconceptions concerning AIDS when it was first diagnosed?
“One Man’s Kids”
1. According to the narrator, what are “traditional” male versus female roles?
2. What can be said about the narrator’s view of self? Does he have one self or many selves? When does
he seem to change?
3. To whom is the essay written and how does that affect your view of the purpose of the essay?
4. What is the overall effect on the reader as to how the narrator opens his essay?
“Sex, Lies, and Conversation”
1. What is the result of “a virtual epidemic of failed conversation”?
3. What emotional needs are most important to women in relationships? To men?
5. According to Tannen, what is the solution to men and women’s communication problems?
“Fraternal Bond as Joking Relationship”
1. According to Lyman, fraternal bonding often takes the form of what?
2. What is it about work and women that most of the men in the frat house do not want to be a part of?
“Women’s Brains”
1. What were some of the flaws of Broca’s research according to Gould?
2. What is Gould’s philosophy on setting biological value on whole groups?
“Public School Number 18: Patterson, New Jersey”
1. What is the significance of lines 5-6?
2. What facilitates change in the speaker’s confidence between home and public situations?
5. How has the speaker’s tone changed by the end of the poem?
6. What figurative meaning is found in line 45?
“The Moment before the Gun Went Off”
1. What is the overall purpose and tone of this essay?
2. Describe the relationship of Van der Vyver with the estranged Black mother of the boy who he killed
(use textual clues as support).
“On Being Black and Middle Class”
1. According to the time of the Civil Rights movement, who was the “purest Black” and why?
2. What is the “double-bind” about which Steele speaks?
3. How could giving an different kind of response have affected Steele’s professor and himself differently
concerning the apartment?
4. Who is Sam and what purpose does he serve in the Steele household?
“The Lesson”
2. Understand the backgrounds of the children of this story and how their experiences fit into “What we are
is who we are”.
3. What is the lesson Ms. Moore is out to teach the children?
4. Does Sylvia understand the lesson Ms. Moore has brought her to F.A.O. Schwarz to learn? Know
information from the text to support your answer.
“Chinaman’s Chance”—review notes. All are fair game.
3. Who does Liu believe suffers from believing the American Dream to be “dead” and why does this group
believe this?
4. Does Liu believe the American Dream will be achieved by all who reach for it?
5. What is the “Obligation” about which Liu speaks?
6. What is the solution to motivating young Americans into action to achieve the American Dream to its
fullest extent?
“Adultery”
1. Why is the context of the wallpaper significant when considering the meaning of the poem?
3. What is meant by “guilt is magical”?
4. To what are the cows eyes compared and what is the significance of it?
Novels:
Bell Jar and Kite Runner—Know major themes and the major changes in the protagonists.
Read: Telephone Conversation and analyze. This will be on your test but we will not discuss it as a
class. Its purpose is to show your ability to analyze on your own.
Telephone Conversation by Wole Soyinka
The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. “Madam,” I warned,
5
“I hate a wasted journey—I am African.”
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.
10
15
20
25
30
35
“HOW DARK?” . . . I had not misheard . . . “ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?” Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfoundment to beg simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—
“ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?” Revelation came.
“You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?”
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wavelength adjusted,
I chose. “West African sepia”—and as an afterthought,
“Down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. “WHAT’S THAT?” conceding,
“DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.” “Like brunette.”
“THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?” “Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—
Foolishly, madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment madam!”—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—“Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself?”
Vocabulary
Empathy vs. Compassion (Ascher)
Insinuation and Vociferous (Cooper)
Slovenliness (Mairs)
Scavenger vs. Scrounger (Eighner)
Essay questions
You will have a choice between two.