Final Exam, Mo'ed Aleph (spring semester 2011)
Introduction to American Literature and Culture, Prof. E. Budick
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. If malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthropy, shall that pass? If an angry bigot
assumes this bountiful cause of Abolition, and comes to me with his last news from
Barbadoes, why should I not say to him, 'Go love thy infant; love thy wood-chopper;
be good-natured and modest; have that grace; and never varnish your hard,
uncharitable ambition with this incredible tenderness for black folk a thousand miles
off. Thy love afar is spite at home.
2. 'I begin to grow weary of town life, Sir. Will you show me the way to the Ferry?'
'No, my good friend Robin, not to-tonight, at least …. Some few days hence, if you
continue to wish it, I will speed you on your journey. Or, if you prefer to remain with
us, perhaps, as you are a shrewd youth, you may rise in the world, without the help of
your kinsman, Major Molineux.'
3. These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original
with me,/ If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,/
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,/ If they are not
just as close as they distant they are nothing.
4. When I think over this rumor, I cannot adequately express the emotions which seize
me. Dead letters! does it not sound like dead men? Conceive a man by nature and
misfortune prone to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitting to
heighten it than that of continually handling these dead letters, and sorting them for
the flames?
5. I have often, in the deep stillness of a summer's Sabbath, stood all alone upon the
lofty banks of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye, the
countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these always
affected me powerfully. My thought would compel utterance; and there, with no
audience but the Almighty, I would pour out my soul's complaint, in my rude way,
with an apostrophe to the moving multitude of ships.
6. Louisa dearly loved to sew a linen seam, not always for use, but for the simple,
mild pleasure which she took in it. She would have been loath to confess how more
than once she had ripped a seam for the mere delight of sewing it together again.
Sitting at her window during long sweet afternoons, drawing her needle gently
through the dainty fabric, she was peace itself.
7. Mrs. Slade gave an unquiet laugh. 'Yes; I was beaten there. But I ought not to
begrudge it to you, I suppose. At the end of all these years. After all, I had
everything; I had him for twenty-five years. And you had nothing but that one letter
that he didn't write.' / Mrs. Ansley was again silent. A length she turned toward the
door of the terrace. She took a step and turned back, facing her companion../ 'I had
Barbara,' she said, and began to move ahead of Mrs. Slade toward the stairway.
8. The first movement he made the following morning was to reach under his pillow
for the gun. In the gray light of dawn he held it loosely, feeling a sense of power.
Could kill a man with a gun like this. Kill anybody, black or white. And if he were
holding his gun in his hand, nobody could run over him; they would have to respect. It
was a big gun, with a long barrel and a heavy handle. He raised and lowered it in his
hand, marveling at its weight.
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 the
texts 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.
In some literary texts the narrator seems virtually identical with the author of
the text; he or she seems to express what we take to be the writer's view point.
Sometimes, however, the narrator is the object of the author's critique. It is
through exposing the inadequacy of the narrator that the text makes its most
cogent arguments.
2. Individualism or what Emerson called "self-reliance" is a value that recurs in
literary text after literary text in the American canon. Yet, even as the texts
critique society and social conventions, they also endorse the obligations of
individuals to society or, at least, to the other individuals that compose society.
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!!