I. SHORT ANSWER: Barnes’s A History of the World
Answer 1 of the following in 1-2 paragraphs.
1. Using two chapters or characters, discuss how Barnes’s novel argues that absolute certainty is difficult at best and a total myth at worst.
2. Barnes’s novel takes aim at several satiric targets. Discuss one of the targets of his satire, how he makes his satiric points about it, and what he ultimately is saying about it.
II. SHORT ANSWER: On-the-spot Poetry Analysis
Analyze any 1 of the following poems from our Norton textbook in 1-2 paragraphs:
Maxine Kumin’s “Woodchucks” (767-768)
Kelly Cherry’s “Alzheimer’s” (784-785)
Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” (791-792)
William Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (891)
E.E. Cummings’s “in Just” (1080-1081).
III. SHORT ANSWER: “Fun” questions
Answer 1 of the following in 1-2 paragraphs.
1. Imagine that one of the texts we’ve studied is a question. What is it asking, and how does it answer that question?
2. Ask a question to any of the authors we’ve studied regarding his or her text, and then attempt to answer that question as the author might have answered it (not necessarily in the voice or style of the writer, but in terms of what the author might say in response to your question).
3. Be a critic: Discuss the quality of one of the following works, explaining whether it was good, bad, a little of both, or something else, being sure to be specific and thorough in explaining why you give it that assessment. The works to choose from: Shepard’s True West, Barnes’s A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, Lowell’s “For the Union Dead,” Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” or Herlihy’s “Love and the Buffalo.”
IV. SHORT ANSWER AND MINI-ESSAY
1. In Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” what is Prufrock’s main problem?
2. In Herlihy’s Terrible Jim Fitch, what is Jim’s main problem?
3. In Herlihy’s Terrible Jim Fitch, what is Sally’s main problem?
4. Discuss the concept of unstable identity in the works of two of the following authors: Hemingway, O’Connor, Shepard, Eliot, Williams.
5. Compare and/or contrast what Barnes’s A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and Lowell’s “For the Union Dead” seem to be saying about history.
6. Any story about an animal or monster is not really about animals or monsters but is really in some way or another about people. If that is true, discuss the human theme(s) in any 1 of the 3 short stories from the “Monsters: An Album” section from our Norton textbook (Atwood, “Lusus Naturae,” 224; Russell, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” 229; or Litt, “The Monster,” 241).
7. Choose any poem in our anthology that we did not study this semester and analyze it. (Do not, of course, use the poem you used in Part II above.)
8. Come up with your own mini-essay question about any text we studied this semester, and answer it.