Exam 2

Literature and the Environment, Spring 2024, O'Donnell

Exam date and time: Monday, April 29 3:50-5:50pm

This exam counts for 25% of the final grade.

Exam Instructions

- Out of the 10 prompts, below, choose 8. For each of those 8, write a "mini essay" -- that is, three or four clear, complete, self-explanatory sentences -- in which you identify 1) the context or definition; 2) the author(s) and text(s) with which prompt is associated; 3) an important issue associated with the prompt.

- Let me emphasize this point: Write complete sentences.

- Write up your responses to this exam, and save as a word document. Upload that document to the D2L dropbox by 6pm.

- Include 1) a descriptive title; 2) your name; 3) the date; 4) page numbers.

10 Prompts -- Choose 8

I have retained the prompt numbers from the study guide, in order to avoid confusion.

4. "If a people in adding a hundred and fifty years to itself subtracts fifty thousand from its land, what is there to hope?"

6. "And what haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature."

7. "The Keystone"

9. "Thinking Like a Mountain"

11. "'The trees in the storm don't try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go,' continued the voice."

12. "Winds are advertisements of all they touch, however much or little we may be able to read them; telling their wanderings even by their scents alone."

13. Rule #3: "Don't bird in a hoodie. Ever."

14. Koanic and aphoristic writing.

16. "They spoke of change, and how they hold the moon in their bellies and wax and wane with its phases. They mocked the presumption of even-tempered beings and made promises that they would never fear the witch inside themselves."

17. "But the longer I stared at it, the less comprehensible the creature became. The more it became something alien to me, the more I had a sense that I knew nothing at all – about nature, about ecosystems."