English 279/ Wom 279 Midterm 2011

ENGLISH 279/ WOM 279 MIDTERM 2011

Section One: From the list of terms below, select ten to briefly explain in 1-2 detailed sentences. Three points each for a total of 30 possible points. Make sure to include the letters of the terms you are identifying.

Example: McClure’s

Answer: McClure’s was the name of the famous muckraking magazine that Cather edited before she became a successful novelist. Some believe that her broad base of knowledge that is integrated into her fiction (e.g., music and drama) came from the various topics that the magazine covered during her time there.

A) local color

B) Catherine Beecher

C) essentialism

D) Creole

E) Charlotte Perkins Gilman

F) Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

G) Napoleonic Code

H) Birth of a Nation

I) James Baldwin

J) Sentimentalism

K) Quakers

L) W.T. Benda

Section Two: You will find a list of short answer questions on the authors and their works below. Please answer five of the following questions with a thorough short paragraph answer. You mostly should draw upon class discussion and background material provided by me and/or presenters. Again, make sure you identify which questions you are answering. 6 points possible for each for 30 points total.

Example: What is the importance of the “Freeman’s Defense Chapter” in Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

Answer: In this chapter, the reader sees George Harris stand up for slaves’ rights to be free, even if that meant using violence, which Stowe supported. Also, he uses the language of our country’s important documents, like the Declaration of Independence, to show that the ideals of our country must apply to everyone. Finally, we see the Quakers take care of Tom Loker, who is injured, to show their goodness in attending to people even if they do not agree with their principles; their care will have a profound effect on Loker and change him for the better.

1. Why did some people have problems with the Liberia ending of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?
2. Does Chopin offer a critique of Adele Ratignolle’s character in The Awakening?
3. What evidence supported that Edna’s death was a suicide? Or what evidence shows that it was not?
4. Where does class become an issue in My Antonia?
5. How is Uncle Tom’s Cabin not just about slavery?
6. What was Cather’s reaction to Chopin’s The Awakening and other female authors?
7. Both Cather and Stowe used irony often when writing. Give an example in either of their novels that show we need to read between the lines and not take the text at face value.
8. Critics have interpreted aspects of My Antonia in many different ways. Provide one critic’s viewpoint that was covered in class.

Section Three: Select one of the essays below and write a response that is several paragraphs. Address all the questions in your answer and feel free to draw upon class discussions, presentations, information from the novels and/or your own interpretations of the works. Please indicate what essay you are answering. Forty points possible.

1. When we studied Chopin, we learned that she once had commented, “Thou shalt not preach” as advice to writers. Would you say that she followed her own advice in The Awakening? Explain your answer. To what extent would you say that Stowe and Cather followed that advice as well? Does preaching distract from enjoying the fictional aspects of literature or can they work side by side, using these novels to support your answer?
2. These first three books were selected as important representatives of American women’s novels. Why do you think each one of these works became famous? Are there contemporary lessons in any of the works or do they mostly reflect an “older” America?