Final Exam, Mo'ed Beth - 31.7.2011
Introduction to American Literature and Culture (spring semester 2011)
Prof. E. Budick
Part I. NO books or notes are to be used in this part of the exam.
Selective five of the following quotations from works we have read this semester. In
a short paragraph identify the name of the work and the author and briefly suggest
how the quotation illuminates or illustrates the work as whole (i.e., what issues does it
raise that are central to the world as a whole, how does the language work as literary
language, etc.). Think a moment before you write the paragraph: even a mini-essay
can express a coherent idea and a meaningful argument.
Remember: you must pass the exam to pass the course; you must pass part I of the
exam to pass the exam.
1. "My Faith is gone!" cried he, after one stupefied
moment. "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a
name. Come, devil! for to thee is this world given."
2. Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who
would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the
name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own
mind.
3. I went to the woods because I wished to live
deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,
and see if I could learn what it had to teach, and not,
when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did
not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear;
nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was
quite necessary.
4. Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive
resistance. If the individual so resisted is of a not
inhumane temper, and the resisting one perfectly harmless
in his passivity; then, in the better moods of the
former, he will endeavor charitably to construe to his
imagination what proves impossible to be solved by his
judgment. … Poor fellow! thought I, he means no mischief;
it is plain he intends no insolence; his aspect
sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are
involuntary. He is useful to me. I can get along with
him.
(continued)
5. I found Sandy an old adviser. He told me, with great
solemnity, I must go back to Covey; but that before I
went, I must go with him into another part of the woods,
where there was a certain root, which, if I would take
some of it with me, carrying it always on my right side,
would render it impossible for Mr. Covey, or any other
white man, to whip me.
6.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass
I love,
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fiber your blood.
7. Now the tall weeds and grasses might cluster around
Caesar's little hermit hut, the snow might fall on its
roof year in and year out, but he never would go on a
rampage through the unguarded village. Now the little
canary might turn itself into a peaceful yellow ball
night after night, and have no need to wake and flutter
with wild terror against its bars.
8. The moon was bright. He ran almost all the way to
the edge of the woods. He stumbled over the ground,
looking for the spot where he had buried the gun. Yeah,
here it is. Like a hungry dog scratching for a bone, he
pawed it up. He puffed his black cheeks and blew dirt
from the trigger and barrel. . . . If anybody could shoot
a gun, he could.
Part II. You may use books and notes for this part of the exam.
In a clearly written, well-focused essay and referring to three texts we have
read in the course, respond to one of the following statements. You may agree or
disagree with the statement. You may also use it as a jumping off point for your own
observations. Be sure, however, that your essay has an argument; that is, make sure
that you have organized your points around a central claim, which you are making
about the texts under discussion. Refer directly to the texts in your essay. USE them
in order to argue your thesis. Write clearly, precisely, specifically, and try to
proofread your essay as well as you can, though, obviously, I do not expect perfect
grammar and spelling.
Note: if you have written your referat essay on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
do not write about that novel in your exam essay; similarly, in relation to Daisy
Miller. You can, of course, write about the novel that you have not written about in
the referat essay.
.
1. Even though most of our attention in a literary text
is focused on the characters and their interactions
with one another, the narrator or narrative voice is
an equally important component of how we come to
understand how and what the literary text means.
2. Non-conformity and self-reliant individualism are
both ideals in American literature and culture and
also dangers.
By opposing societal norms and
values, you always run the risk of madness and civil
chaos.
Not to resist such norms and values,
however, threatens to preserve an equally mad status
quo.
3. Literary texts are never ideological or political;
they always ask questions to which there are no easy
answers; they promote multiple points of view; and
they issue in a variety of interpretations, which
often contradict each other and cancel each other
out.
BEST OF LUCK!!