Final Exam, Mo'ed Beth –
Introduction to American Literature and Culture (spring semester 2012)
Mr. David Hadar
Part I (50%, you must past this section to pass the exam)
NO books or notes are to be used in this part of the exam.
Select five of the following quotations from works we have read this semester. For
each passage identify the name of the work, the author, and its genre (essay, short story,
speech, etc.) (one point each). Then in a short paragraph (half a page) briefly suggest how
the quotation illuminates or illustrates the work as whole (i.e., what issues does it raise
that are central to the work, how does the language work as literary language in the
context of the work, etc.). Make sure to point out special uses of language that illustrate
your point. Think a moment before you write the paragraph: even a mini-essay can
express a coherent idea and a meaningful argument (7 points).
(Note: when a story’s name includes or is the name of a character, that name is
marked by [name])
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The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our
poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they
gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall
not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the
earth.
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A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any
more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green
stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may
see and remark, and say Whose?
Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the
vegetation.
Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I
receive them the same.
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It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener's business to verify the accuracy of
his copy, word by word. Where there are two or more scriveners in an office, they assist
each other in this examination, one reading from the copy, the other holding the original.
It is a very dull, wearisome, and lethargic affair. I can readily imagine that to some
sanguine temperaments it would be altogether intolerable. For example, I cannot credit
that the mettlesome poet Byron would have contentedly sat down with [name] to examine
a law document of, say five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand.
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Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly commenced to
teach me the A, B, C. After I had learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words
of three or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found out what was
going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to instruct me further, telling her, among other
things, that it was unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his own
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words, further, he said, "If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should
know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning would ~spoil~
the best nigger in the world. Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself)
how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He
would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.
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Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members.
Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of
his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue
it most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and
creators, but names and customs.
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4. That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's
appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time
comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their
own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let
them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on
such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let
go he immediately falls and is lost.
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"Faith!" shouted [name], in a voice of agony and desperation; and the echoes of the forest
mocked him, crying, "Faith! Faith!" as if bewildered wretches were seeking her all
through the wilderness.
The cry of grief, rage, and terror was yet piercing the night, when the unhappy husband
held his breath for a response. There was a scream, drowned immediately in a louder
murmur of voices, fading into far-off laughter, as the dark cloud swept away, leaving the
clear and silent sky above [name]. But something fluttered lightly down through the air
and caught on the branch of a tree. The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon.
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It was about dark now; so I dropped the canoe down the river under some willows that
hung over the bank, and waited for the moon to rise. I made fast to a willow; then I took
a bite to eat, and by and by laid down in the canoe to smoke a pipe and lay out a plan. I
says to myself, they'll follow the track of that sackful of rocks to the shore and then drag
the river for me. And they'll follow that meal track to the lake and go browsing down the
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creek that leads out of it to find the robbers that killed me and took the things. They
won't ever hunt the river for anything but my dead carcass. They'll soon get tired of that,
and won't bother no more about me. All right; I can stop anywhere I want to. Jackson's
Island is good enough for me; I know that island pretty well, and nobody ever comes
there. And then I can paddle over to town nights, and slink around and pick up things I
want. Jackson's Island's the place.
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Part II. You may use books and notes for this part of the exam.
In a clearly written, well-focused essay and referring to two texts we have read in
the course, respond to one of the following statements or questions. 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. You are
not restricted to the recommended texts. Refer directly to the texts in your essay. USE
them in order to argue your thesis, especially by referring to the poetic and rhetoric
devices they use (point-of-view, metaphors and similes, intertexual allusions, etc.). Write
clearly, precisely, and specifically. I recommend you first write about one text, then the
other and use the final paragraph to compare the two.
1. Emerson wrote that: “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of
every one of its members.” Is this statement relevant to any the text that we
studied in class? Discuss the relationship between society at large and the
individual in specific works.
Recommended texts: “Bartleby”, “Daisy Miller”, The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin, Fredrick Douglas’s Narrative, “Self Reliance”, “Civil Disobedience”, “The
Yellow Wallpaper”, Poems by Whitman and Dickenson, Souls of Black Folk,
Huckleberry Finn
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2. Texts reflect their historic and social context, but can also try to change these
circumstances. Choose two texts that refer to similar contexts (racism for
example) and discuss their methods and reasons for doing so.
Recommended texts: “Daisy Miller”, Fredrick Douglas’s Narrative, “Civil
Disobedience”, Lincoln’s speeches, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Poems by Emily
Dickenson, “When Lilacs Last…”, Souls of Black Folk, “Désirée's Baby”, “My
Kinsman, Major Molineux”, Huckleberry Finn,
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