English 2132: American Literature II: tests

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Study Guides

There will be THREE tests this semester, one for each third of the course. These tests will have quote identifications and short discussion questions. Full credit on quote IDs will be given for the correct FULL name of the author and title of the work, spelled and formatted correctly (i.e. quotation marks or underlining when necessary). In the discussion questions you will write about events, themes, and writing styles in the works; you will also be asked to define and give examples of literary terms. The third test will be considered the final exam, even though it will be formatted the same as the first two tests. A typed, out-of-class essay response to a larger cumulative question will be due on day of the final exam.

Use these study guides to prepare for each test:

Study Guide for Final Exam

Review Questions

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)

"The Life You Save May Be Your Own" (1955)

How does Mr. Shiftlet's physical deformity represent a spiritual problem?
In what way is this story like a parable from the New Testament?
This story might seem to end without a resolution, but does it end without a purpose?

"Good Country People" (1955)

What does Hulga's wooden leg symbolize early in the story? How about at the end?
Why does O'Connor use an epiphany as the climactic moment of this story?
What is the role of the "bible salesman"? Does he have a religious purpose in the story?

from "Writing Short Stories"

What reason does O'Connor give to explain why "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" is a complete story? What keeps a short story from being short?
How does O'Connor describe the process by which she wrote "Good Country People"?
What does O'Connor mean when she says, "The fiction writer states as little as possible"?

Grace Paley (1922-2007)

"A Conversation with My Father" (1974)

What does the narrator mean by "Everyone, real or invented, deserves the open destiny of life"?
What effect does the narrator's story have on her father? What does she have to look "in the face"?

Denise Levertov (1923-1997)

"To the Snake" (1960)

How is this poem a different version of the temptation story in the Garden of Eden?
What is the speaker's attitude toward having no certainty or hope. What is the benefit of desire?

"The Jacob's Ladder" (1961)

Why is the staircase in this poem made of stone, "solidly built," instead of "radiant evanescence"?
Why does the poem ascend instead of descend? What is the speaker's attitude toward human endeavour?

"In Mind" (1964)

Who are the two women "in mind"? Is one more favored than the other by the speaker?
How is this poem, along with the previous two, ABOUT the writing of poetry?

John Updike (1932-2009)

"Separating" (1975)

Why is this story in third-person, though almost all the details give us Richard's point of view?
Why is the question "Why?" left unanswered at the end of the story? Is this ending optimistic?

Ann Beattie (1947- )

"Weekend" (1978)

Why is the tone of the narrator so detached in this story? Why is there no judgment?
Why is Lenore able to accept what George says over and over as the truth?
With what final impression of Lenore and George does the end of the story leave us?

Raymond Carver (1938-1988)

"Cathedral" (1983)

Why would this story be narrated by a man who is not good enough with words to describe a cathedral to a blind man?
What other kinds of blindness are revealed to the husband by the end of the story?
How does this story employ a minimalist style? Why is a minimalist style useful?

Tim O'Brien (1946- )

"Speaking of Courage" (1991)

Why does Norman struggle so much to tell his story? How does his struggle affect your experience being audience to the story you are reading?
What is the metaphoric unity between the lake and the shit field? Why is it important that Norman is driving around and around the lake?

"Notes" (1991)

What is O'Brien's view of his purpose in writing stories about the Vietnam War and the experiences he had there with his platoon?
What is the connection between Norman's inability to save Kiowa (which is made up by O'Brien, by the way) and O'Brien's failure to tell Norman's story the way he needed it to be told?
In what way can telling a story be an act of uncommon valor?

Sharon Olds (1942- )

"I Go Back to May 1937" (1987)
"Little Things" (1987)
"Adolescence" (1996)
"First Weeks" (2002)

How do these poems challenge the expectation that private, intimate thoughts about sex and the body are not suitable for public consumption? Do these poems have a limited audience, or are they designed to transform (seduce?) the unwilling reader into a willing participant?
What do these poems say about the purpose of writing poetry? Is there a reliable reference point for defining the "best reason" to write at all?
Like Whitman, Sharon Olds seems to value candor, but she also resists the idea that her poetry is personal . . . how can we reconcile these apparently contradictory positions?

Study Page for Test Two

Review Questions

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

"Mending Wall" (1914)

Why does the speaker have such a conversational tone?
How do lines 14-16 mimic what the speaker is trying to say?

"Birches" (1916)

What is a "swinger of birches," and why does the speaker dream of being one again?
What is the alternative to accepting the truth about ice storm and birches bent low?

"Out, Out—" (1916)

Explain the word "So" in line 27. What is the purpose of the detached tone?
What do the last two lines suggest about the limits of poetry in the face of death?

"Fire and Ice" (1923)

What is fire and what is ice, and why could each cause an end to us?
Consider the length and straightforward words of the poem. Who is this speaker?

"The Figure a Poem Makes" (1939)

In what way can a poem be "a momentary stay against confusion"?
What kind of experience does Frost want to give the reader of his poems?

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

"The Snow Man" (1931)

What is a "mind of winter" and why, according to the speaker, must one have it?
How is a "mind of winter" related perhaps to the "impersonal theory of poetry"?

"The Death of a Soldier" (1931)

What attitude toward death does the speaker seem to hold?
How does this poem look for what will suffice? Why not glorify the death of a soldier?

"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" (1931)

How does this poem explore the role of point of view in observation?
Does this poem look for what will suffice, or does it look for more? What is the role of "imagination"?

"Of Modern Poetry" (1942)

Written during WWII, how does this poem address the role of the poet during a war?
What does the speaker mean by "the act of finding what will suffice"?

"The Plain Sense of Things" (1954)

Why is the "plain sense of things" not as appealing as imagination?
How does this speaker respond to the idea that everything is falling apart and slowing down?

"A Note on Poetry" (1938)

What is the relationship between freedom and form for Stevens?
Can freedom as a poet be achieved by using a particular form?

"Poetry and War" (1942)

What affect does the "violent reality of war" have on the imagination of the poet?
Why must the poetry of war be "consciousness of fact as everyone is at least satisfied to have it be"?

"Poetry and Meaning" (1948)

What is the relationship between form and meaning in poetry (and music)?
How can poems have explicit meanings that are not explained by the poet?

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915)

What kind of journey does the speaker of the poem want to take us on? Why?
Consider that the poem is Prufrock's attempt to be a poet. Does he have anything important to tell us?
What is an "objective correlative"? Does Prufrock manage to achieve this standard of poetry?

"Tradition and the Individual Talent" (1919)

What is the historical sense, and why does Eliot place so much emphasis on it?
Explain the significance of the shred of platinum in terms of writing poetry?
What is Eliot's "impersonal theory of poetry"? Why does it need to be impersonal in this way?

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

"Babylon Revisited" (1931)

Why does Charlie believe in character again? Why is it the only thing that lasts?
How is this story about the word "dissipate"? What does the word mean?
What prevents Marion from trusting Charlie? How does SHE define the word "character"?

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

"Barn Burning" (1938)

In what way does this story use "outrageous overstatement" to create drama?
Who is the narrator (not the boy) and what is the narrative perspective in this story?
Considering the dilemma in this story, what is ironic about the last line, "He did not look back"?

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (1938)

What is the iceberg principle? How does the story create dramatic effect using this principle?
How is the act of writing related to Harry's central conflict in the story? How does he "write"?
Why doesn't Hemingway leave us with the pure and beautiful image of the snow on top of Kilimanjaro?

Study Page for Test One

Review Questions

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Song of Myself (1881)

What is the speaker's attitude toward himself as a poet? How does he relate his "self" to others?
In what way does this poem communicate a Romantic outlook on the world? How is the poet a hero?
How does the form of the poem represent the speaker's way of looking at the world around him?
What kind of relationship does the speaker seem to want with the reader of his poetry?

“Preface to Leaves of Grass” (1855)

Why do Americans of the time have the "fullest poetical nature"? Why is America itself "the greatest poem"?
What are some qualities of "the great poet" who will best express the "poetical stuff" of America?
Why is candor so important in poetry, for Whitman? What role does the poet play in telling the truth?

Henry James (1843-1916)

“The Art of Fiction” (1884)

What, according to James, is "the supreme virtue of the novel"? Why is this quality so important?
In what ways can fiction tell the "truth"? What is the test of truth in a novel? Is it moral truth?
Why does the novel writer need freedom? By what standard should we measure the quality of a novel?
What is the responsibility of the novelist? What is the responsibility of the reader?

Kate Chopin (1850-1904)

The Awakening (1899)

What is the central dilemma of the protagonist in this novel? How does the novel handle this dilemma?
Why does the point of view of the narrator occasionally take on the thoughts and feelings of Edna?
What is the "awakening"? Whose awakening is it? How does Edna seem to handle her "awakening"?
What is the significance of Edna's efforts to be an artist? What does an artist need to thrive?
How does this novel exhibit the qualities of Realism? Does Edna have a choice in the end?

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

“The Open Boat” (1897)

Who is the narrator and what is his point of view on the events, being told "after the fact"?
What is the conflict in this work? Are the four main characters in a position to choose their fate?
How does this narrative exhibit the qualities of Naturalism? What is the narrator's attitude toward nature?
How are the details in this work different from the details one might find in a newspaper account?

Jack London (1876-1916)

“To Build a Fire” (1908)

Who is the narrator and what is his point of view on the action? His attitude toward the man?
On what level is the man responsible for his own fate, and on what level is he not?
How does this narrative exhibit the qualities of Naturalism? What is the narrator's attitude toward nature?
How does the author capture the panic and desperation of the man "not much given to thinking"?

“What Life Means to Me” (1905)

In what way does this essay make Jack London seem more idealistic than he seems in "To Build a Fire"?
Does Jack London sympathize with human suffering? How then can he also be considered a Naturalist?

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935)

“The Yellow Wall-paper” (1892)

How do we account for the unconventional surface of this narrative? Is there a narrator, and if so, who is it? Does it have a recognizable plot and story?
How does Gilman help us think about the act of writing as we read this narrative?
How can it be, as we learn at the end of the work, that the woman behind the paper both is and is not, in some sense, Jane herself?

“Why I Wrote 'The Yellow Wall-paper'” (1913)

For what expressed purpose did Gilman write "The Yellow Wall-paper"?
What are some features of the narrative that account for its success in achieving this purpose?

Pages

Study Guides

Study Guide for Final Exam

Study Page for Test Two

Study Page for Test One