English 9-12: Loss & LoveDecember 16, 2014
Prompt Choices, Exam Essay #2Dr. Seth Hurwitz
All students must bring their poetry packets to the exam!
Choose one of the following prompts:
A:The following prompt is only available to non-native speakers who started at TFS after August 2013: What does poetry mean to you, and what does it do to you? In trying to answer this question, please provide examples from poems--or song lyrics--with which you are familiar. You must include
a.at least one example from a poem we discussed this semester in class;
b.at least one example from a poem from our packet that we did not discuss;
c.at least one example from a poem or song lyric in your native language; and
d.at least one example from a song lyric in English.
B:The following prompt is only available to non-honors students: Explore the character of the father (Joseph Newton) in Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. Specifically, focus one two groups of scenes: those that dramatize his pleasure (a pleasure shared by his friend Herb) reading and discussing murder stories, and those that dramatize his work in the bank. Although Hitchcock treats these scenes with humor, they also seem to suggest something about the father and the society in which he lives. Within these two groups, attend to at least two separate sequences, describe them, and then consider the following: Where is the humor here? What serious issues lie underneath the humor? And how do these issues relate to larger themes in the movie?
C:The following prompt is only available to non-honors students and honors freshmen and sophomores: Explore the theme of "perversity" in each of the three Poe texts we read ("Annabel Lee," "The Black Cat," "The Raven"). What does Poe mean by that term? In what particular ways are his characters "perverse"? How, specifically, does this behavior affect his characters? You may, if you wish, also bring up other Poe stories or poems with which you're familiar, including "The Man of the Crowd."
D:The following prompt is available to all students: Using examples from The Great Gatsbyand "Crickets," consider why an author might choose to write a narrative using a first-person narrator.
E:The following prompt is available to all students: The name of this year's course is "Loss & Love." Looking at examples fromthree different texts (and you may only use one story or poem by Poe), explore the following question: What manner of love can be redeemed from loss?