Budden
English 200
Final Take-Home Essay Test
Overview:
Instead of a Final Paper, you will have a take-home Final Essay Test consisting
of 3 questions. You may use our textbook and whatever notes you have taken in
class or while doing homework to answer the questions. You must answer one
question from each section. Each answer should be about 500 words (about 2
double-spaced typed pages.) More important than the length of each essay,
though, is that it answers the question, and is specific and to the point.
Directions:
1. Clearly indicate which questions you are answering, and separate the
answers from each other.
2. Make sure that each of your answers has a clear thesis, and that your
answer proves your thesis. (Hint: you may want to write your answer first,
and then go back and write your thesis.)
3. Address the differences that exist because the works are written in
different genres, using literary terms where appropriate.
4. Please use short (!) quotations from the stories, poems and plays to
support your answers, and place page numbers in parentheses after
quotations.
Section A – Short Story and Poem: Choose one (1):
1. How does loss or the anticipation of loss contribute to the structure or
plot of The Red Convertible (126) and Mid-term Break (665)?
2. How does loneliness influence the character development of Miss Emily
in A Rose for Emily (176) and the speaker in Eating Alone (596)?
3. How does old age contribute to plot or theme development in Bean
Eaters (574) and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (386)?
4. How is nature imagery used in The Flowers (20) and First Snow (644)?
How does this imagery contribute to your understanding of both works?
Section B – Poem and Play: Choose one (1):
1. How are sports seemingly part of the setting in To an Athlete Dying
Young (824) and Crossing the Border (909)? How do sports help each
author to achieve his goal?
2. How does race contributes to the conflicts experienced by the characters
in On Being Told I don’t Speak like a Black Person (582) and A Raisin in
the Sun (1300)?
3. What poetic and dramatic elements do the authors of My Papa’s Waltz
(602) and Trifles (922) employ to address difficult family relationships?
4. How is the theme of “progress” addressed differently in The world is too
much with us (883) and The New New (899)? (Define progress as part of
your intro.)
Section C – Short Story and Play Choose one (1):
1. How does setting contribute to your understanding of The House on
Mango Street (160) and A Raisin in the Sun (1300)?
2. How does dialogue reflect different views on assimilation and the
American Dream in Daughter of Invention (10) and A Raisin in the Sun
(1300)? (Choose one character’s views from each work)
3. How do the murders in A Good Man is Hard to Find (134) and Trifles (922)
contribute to the authors’ creation of plot? What part of the plot are they?
(i.e. rising action, climax, falling action…something else?)
4. How is a “border” both literal and figurative in The Lone Ranger and
Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (291) and Crossing the Border (909)?
Due date:
In class, Tuesday, December 11. NO EXCEPTIONS.
If you anticipate a problem, hand it in early!!