English 2110.003
Spring 2006
Exam #3 (Take-Home Version)
Respond to all ten (10) of the following. Each is worth up to ten points. Sentence structures and spelling matter, so write your best. The prompts are of different kinds, so read the directions for each carefully. Type your responses directly into this document. If you are submitting the exam electronically, please save under your last name and submit either via email or Blackboard's Digital Drop Box. Remember that your electronic submission of the exam is not complete until you have received a response from me saying that I can access the file and read it successfully. If you are submitting a hard copy, please bring it by my office (211 Burleson, where you can slip it under the door if I'm not in), leave it in my mailbox in 103 Burleson or deliver it to our classroom during our final exam period, 8:00-10:00 on Thursday, 4 May. All exams must be submitted by 10:00 am on Thursday, 4 May.
I. Choose either "The Raven" or "Ligeia" (not both) and explain in an example-filled paragraph of at least five sentences how Edgar Allan Poe creates the unreliable narrator.
II. Identify the following quote by author and title: "The future complexion of New England was involved in this important quarrel. Should the grisly saints establish their jurisdiction over the gay sinners, then would their spirits darken all the clime, and make it a land of clouded visages, of hard toil, of sermon and psalm, forever." Once you have identified author and title, write a minimum of five sentences in which you analyze the quote's meaning in the context of the story from which it comes.
III. Write brief character sketches (at least 2-3 sentences for each) of Timon Lion, Abel Lamb and Hope Lamb. Be sure to focus these sketches so that they reveal the different roles each character plays in Louisa May Alcott's "Transcendental Wild Oats."
IV. Reread lines 497-507 of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" (section 24, from the line that begins "Walt Whitman" through the line that begins "By God!"). In 100-150 of your own words, explain what these lines reveal about the poet's democratic beliefs.
V. Write 100-150 words in which you identify (in complete and coherent sentences) some of the differences and similarities between the forest experiences of Hawthorne's Goodman Brown and the young wife and mother in Spofford's "Circumstance."
VI. Reread Dickinson's poems 199, 249 and 449. Choose one (1) of these and write a paraphrase of 100-150 words that explains what you think the poem says.
VII. Identify the following quote by author and title: "You who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged. . . . I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong." Once you have identified author and title, write a minimum of five sentences in which you analyze the quote's meaning in the context of the story from which it comes. (I would suggest you consult a dictionary regarding any words with which you are unfamiliar.)
VIII. In a response of 100-150 words, explain your view of how Nathaniel Hawthorne presents science and/or scientists in "Rappaccini's Daughter."
IX. Think about the second part of Melville's "The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids." (Reread if necessary.) In a paragraph of at least five sentences, answer this question: How does the way women were viewed in the 19th century—biologically and culturally—help us understand why the story has them doing factory work with the machines?
X. A scavenger hunt through "Somnambulism" and "Rip Van Winkle"! Each of the following multiple-choice items is worth one point. You are given three possible answers to each. Respond by simply deleting the wrong answers and leaving only the right one.
A. In Charles Brockden Brown's "Somnambulism," what is the distance to the ferry Mr. and Miss Davis are determined to reach the night they leave the house of Althorpe's uncle?
¼ mile
3 miles
20 miles
B. What is dangerous about the oak the travelers will pass during their night journey?
it is a hiding place for "savages"
it grows in the middle of the road
it is decayed and ready to fall
C. What is the Davis's first indication that they have some unknown company on their night journey?
they hear a scream off to one side of the road
they hear a noise like a gate shutting somewhere behind them
they see somebody standing in the middle of the road ahead of them
D. What is the name of the place through which the Davises are making their night journey?
Norwalk
Norwood
Norwich
E. Why does Mr. Davis leave Constantia alone in the dark under the oak?
to go after their horse
to go for the doctor
to try to apprehend Nick Handyside
F. According to Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," what European nation was home to the colonists who first established Rip's village?
the Netherlands
France
Germany
G. What is the name of Rip's dog?
Rover
Chief
Wolf
H. The first question Rip is asked when he returns from his "nap" is in regards to what?
who he is
how he voted
where he has been
I. What two persons have appeared on the sign above the village inn/hotel over the years encompassed by the story?
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
General George Washington and King George III
Benjamin Franklin and George Washington
J. Who in the village is the first to recognize Rip Van Winkle after his long sleep?
his dog
his daughter
an old female neighbor