American Lit Second Semester Exam

Front 1

1. Recite the last four lines of Frost’s “Take Something Like a Star.” What does the poem say about mystery, constancy, integrity, and hope?

Back 1

a. So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame to far
We may take something like a star
To stay out minds on and be staid
b. Mystery:
i. Nature is mysterious
ii. By the star not speaking, it is holding an element of mystery
1. “ some mystery becomes the proud”
iii. Human believe that they have the right to understand every mystery of nature, and when those secrets are not revealed to us, we become angry
c. Constancy: being unchanging
i. The star remains silent even when the narrator becomes angry
1. even when the star is covered by a cloud it is still there, and we must remember that
ii. The narrator’s tone does not show constancy, he goes from hopeful, to angry, to understanding
d. Integrity: adherence to ethical principles
i. The narrator wants to stop mobs from performing acts that are unethical
ii. The narrator respects the star and shows that by saying “we grant your loftiness the right to come obscurity by cloud”
e. Hope
i. The narrator hopes that by “taking something like a star” one human can stop a crowd of people from doing something un ethical
ii. The narrator hopes that by speaking to the star he can figure his own problems out

Front 2

2. Define four commonly committed logical fallacies and give a contemporary example of each.

Back 2

a. Bandwagon: you should do it because every else does it.
i. You should go to the beach because all of the other kids are going.
b. Ad Homonym: attack on the person and not their argument
i. Obama is unfit to be president because he doesn’t have enough hair.
c. Slippery slope: saying that one thing will lead to another
i. If one of our freedoms of speech is limited then all of them will eventually be limited.
d. Hasty Generalization: a conclusion based on too little evidence
i. Because Andrew is wearing black, he must be emo.

Front 3

3. Define rhetoric according to Aristotle. State and define the three rhetorical appeals, and quote a specific example of each one from the “Gettysburg Address.”

Back 3

Aristotle (rhetorical aims- 3 elements of rhetoric)
-Rhetoric: the use of the best available means to persuade
1. Ethos: ethical appeal “I language”, how you portray yourself, and people portray you.
- Lincoln speaks with elegant diction. He presents himself in a manor that does not send a condescending tone to the audience, but it makes them look inward instead of outwardly fighting.
-“ The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here”
2. Pathos: emotional appeal. “you language”, know your audience
- Lincoln appeals to the emotion in his audience by speaking of all the men who lost their lives and how it is the audience’s responsibility to make sure that their lives were not lost for nothing.
- “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.”
- he also mentions the declaration of independence to try and remind his audience of what their ancestors fought for in the revolutionary war and show that they are destroying the founding fathers’ dream.
- “our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceive in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal”
3. Logos: logical appeal. “it language”
- Everything that Lincoln says in his address is logical, but it is his ethos and pathos that remain with the audience and truly get his point across
- “ We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this”

Front 4

8. List three points Orwell makes in “Politics and the English Language.” Select a contemporary politician who violates these rules, and cite an example of his or her speech. What advice would Orwell give that politician?

Back 4

a. “Never use a long word where a short one will do”
b. “Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent”
c. “Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.”
d. Sarah Palin typically speaks with very casual, simple diction when addressing the nation. Occasionally however, she will be quoted as throwing in larger words such as maverick, when the simple adjective independent would have been sufficient.
e. Orwell would tell Palin to stay with simple language.

Front 5

9. State the three traits of existentialism and explain what the existentialist avoids and what he seeks. Give an example of a piece of literature that presents existential values. Cite an example of each trait.

Back 5

a. Choice
b. Action
c. Responsibility
d. He seeks:
i. An individual experience
ii. An authentic experience
e. He avoids:
i. Being corrupted in society
f. Walden presents existential values
g. Thoreau made the choice to move away from society
h. Thoreau built a house with his own ability
i. Thoreau was solely responsible for maintaining his property, and provide for himself

Front 6

4. Willie Stark is not a tragic hero; he is simply the beneficiary of good luck and the victim of bad luck. State Aristotle’s definitions of tragedy and of the tragic hero, and use evidence from All the King’s Men to support or refute the above statement.

Back 6

a. Tragedy: causes the purging of emotions
i. Fundamental irony: their flaw that makes them fall is also one of their good qualities
b. Tragic Hero: The fall of a noble person from a high place because of a critical mistake, usually tragic pride (hubris)
c. All the King’s Men:
i. According to the definition, Willie was a tragic hero because he started as a simple country boy and ended up getting sucked into the corruption of politics which caused his own downfall
ii. His affairs, blackmailing, Sadie told him he was being used

Front 7

10. Compare the quest (you must define “quest”)of Huck Finn to the quest of one other character we have read about this year. What are they looking for? Do they find it? Give two examples for each character.

Back 7

a. Huck Finn
i. Huck seeks to find a basis for his morality.
1. Huck finds justice for Jim and ultimately lets his morals guide him instead of society’s morals.
• Huck decides whether to help Jim or condemn himself to hell. Ultimately he decides his morals of loyalty outweigh society’s view of Jim.
• In the end Huck decides to head out west instead of becoming a good school boy as society wishes to decide for him.
b. Jay Gatsby
i. Jay seeks his lost love in hopes of finding all that is good in the world.
1. Jay finds deception and a cold truth. He is murdered through jealousy and carelessness and Nick notes that Daisy merely breaks things and expects others to clean it up.
• Jay hosts a party in hopes of fulfilling the void left by Daisy. This ends up leading to him meeting Nick.
• Jay is murdered by loving Daisy. This illustrates a raw view of the world we live in.

Front 8

5. Why did Thoreau go to the woods? Select two examples of figurative language and two of syntax that he used to make his point.

Back 8

a. “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach. And not when I came to die discover that I had not lived. I do not wish to live what is not life.”
b. Thoreau went to the woods to separate himself from society; he wanted to live a raw life with only himself.
c. Figurative: live deep and suck out all the marrow of life
i. Thoreau uses the figure of sucking bone marrow and compares it to sucking everything out of life.
d. Syntax: simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity!
i. It emphasizes his point with repetition
e. Figurative: “life is in us like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever know it, and flood the parches uplands”
i. Sometimes life is more vibrant than other times
f. Syntax: He uses short sentence to emphasis and summarize the points he made in the longer sentences before

Front 9

15. Compare the reactions to adversity of Hester Prynne and Jim with two examples for each. Are the characters more similar or different in personality?

Back 9

15. Compare the reactions to adversity of Hester Prynne and Jim with two examples for each. Are the characters more similar or different in personality?

Hester Prynne
i. Hester is ignored by her lover, and condemned by the community as a whole, and has a scarlet letter to constantly separate her from everyone else. However, instead of becoming bitter and staying to herself, she devotes herself to her sewing and taking care of her daughter.

ii. Hester also devotes herself to helping the community. Because of the way she treats others, the community stops noticing her scarlet letter and begins accepting her as a person again.

Jim
i. As a slave, Jim constantly faces adversity through being treated as a lesser human being. However, instead of becoming angry and hateful toward whites, he befriends Huck and becomes loyal to him.

ii. When Huck and Jim are at the river, Jim does whatever he can to help Huck. Even though he could be caught at any moment, he still helps Huck.

The two characters are more similar in personality. They are both calm in the face of adversity. Although they are put in many situations that would cause most people to react negatively, they overcome that. Both characters make others realize that discrimination is not “right.” Jim changes Huck’s attitude about blacks, and Hester changes her community’s attitude toward her.

Front 10

10. Define narrative distance, narrative persona, and implied author. What is the effect of narrative distance in a story? Give examples of all of the above from one story.

Back 10

a. Wayne Booth
b. Narrative distance: links the narrative persona and the author, the distance between the author’s and character’s view.
i. Wide narrative distance generates irony
ii. The narrative distance between Nick Carraway and F. Scott Fitzgerald is very close. In the first chapter Nick jokingly criticizes his own personality. This criticism makes Nick look humble and appealing to the reader. The sympathy that the reader has for Nick creates close narrative distance.
c. Narrative persona:
i. Causes: sympathy, knowledge, and time
d. Implied author: the author’s views expressed

Front 11

9. Describe the imagery and explain the thematic importance of each of the three scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter.

Back 11

-First scaffold scene – public humiliation of Hester, first glimpse of the “A”. Dimmsdale acts as accuser (the image of the rosebush outside of the jail shows a beauty to Hester and an innocence underneath her “sin”. The jeers and commotion desribed of the crowd so their dislike and accusatory feeling of Hester)

-Second scaffold scene – middle of the night, Dimmsdale’s guilt tearing him apart, lets out a cry that is heard by Hester and Pearl who are walking past. They join him on the scaffold and when a meteor flashes in the sky Pearl sees Chillingsworth watching them. (the darkness and the confusing flashes of light and blindness of the night described through imagery show that the main characters are all at crossroads, trying to decide what decisions to make)

-Third scaffold scene – election day, again in front of the whole town. Dimmsdale reveals his “scarlett letter” and confesses to his sin in front of everyone with hester and pearl by his side. He dies.

-The three scenes bring the main characters together, and shape the plot because everything else revolves around the events during the scaffold scenes.

c. Willie Stark is not a tragic hero
i. It was a coincidence that the school house fell when it did. If the school house had not become such a tragedy, Willie would not have gained so much attention and would not have been so successful. If Sadie Burke had not accidentally told Willie that he was being used by the Harrison machine, he would not have become so angry and determined to not ever be used again.

Front 12

11. Use Nancy Mairs’ “On Being a Cripple” to illustrate the role of diction and irony in making her point.

Back 12

a. Irony
i. “God doesn’t give bonus points for a limp. I’d take a cure; I just don’t need one” (279)
1. ironic because most people would see being a cripple as a devastating thing and not be able to look past it but she makes her point by creating this unusual situation to show that being disabled should not determine your life or diminish it
b. Diction
i. Uses word “cripple” to get emotional appeal: uses pathos
1. this gets the readers sympathy for her and shows us that she uses humor in describing herself which makes the reader more comfortable and makes the reader think that she is very humble
2. a word she uses to describe herself because it is not vague
3. “perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer” 268: she is talking about why she uses the word cripple and how it makes people cringe: gets peoples sympathy: wants them to see her as a person that can be proud of who she is and have confidence when all else puts her down: this is a common theme in her story by saying that she can be proud of who she is and not let it get her down or define her: “as a cripple I swagger”
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a. Diction
i. As a cripple I swagger. She uses diction to make a serious topic conversational and down plays the situation.
ii. Cripple seems to me a clean word, straightforward and precise: explaining why she uses the word cripple
iii. I am not a disease: the words alone are nothing but together they are so forceful it’s insane!
b. Irony
i. The same quote can also be used for irony because later in the essay she talks about how descructive and unpredicatable the disease is when here she is making downplaying the severity.
ii. The terror that people are kind to me only because I am a cripple; it’s ironic because people make a point trying to be nice, but when it comes across as forced it’s not really wanted or nice.
iii. I sometimes hate myself for being a cripple: you hard to hear that someone hates themselves for something they can’t help; it’s ironic because throughout the rest of the essay she is saying how she’s excepted and doesn’t want pity from others and that she’s made her situation manageable.