English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
Literary Genres
Nonfiction
Autobiography/Biography
Personal Essay
Speech/Sermon
Fiction
Poetry
Drama/Play
Persuasive
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
Literary Works
Speech in the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry (p. 99)
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (p. 85)
“The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” by Benjamin Franklin (p. 140)
“Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Assorted Poetry of Emily Dickinson (pp. 406)
“The Minister’s Black Veil” (p. 272)
“The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Raven,” & “The Fall of the House of Usher” by E.A. Poe (pp. 291)
“Where is Here?” by Joyce Carol Oates
“Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (p.365)
“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau (p. 377)
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce (p. 479)
“The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane
“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Remember you can discuss your literary movement novel that you read.
Literary Terms
Allusion –references to well-known people or events from history
Archetypes- added deep dimensions for listeners with pictures, patterns, characters and stories from the bible/ repeated characters and stories
Aphorism- short sayings with a message
Ambiguity- uncertain meaning
Author’s style- features of use of language including tone, word choice, etc.
Theme- A central message or insight into life revealed by a literary work
Parable- a story that teaches a moral lesson
Synecdoche- the use of a part of something to stand for the whole
Rhetorical devices- patterns of words and ideas that create emphasis, clarify meaning, and stir listener’s emotions.
Symbol- an object, setting, or even a character that has meaning as itself but also stands for something greater, often an abstract idea
Bildungsroman- a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character
Motif- recurring concept
Metafiction- fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the fact that the work is fiction; characteristic of Postmodernism
Metonymy-a figure of speech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else which is closely associated
Euphemism-polite, indirect expressions which replace words and phrases considered harsh and impolite or which suggest something unpleasant
Paradox-a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or silly but includes a latent truth
Diction-word choice
Sermon- a speech given from a pulpit in a house of worship; form of oratory
Elements of Plot
Be able to identify the events that mark each element of plot in the following literary works:
The Crucible
Exposition -
Rising Action -
Climax -
Falling Action -
Resolution -
The Awakening
Exposition -
Rising Action -
Climax -
Falling Action -
Resolution -
The Great Gatsby
Exposition -
Rising Action -
Climax -
Falling Action -
Resolution –
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Exposition -
Rising Action -
Climax -
Falling Action -
Resolution -
Themes
Consider common themes that connect the texts we have read this semester. There are many, however here a few. Add to the list provided and discuss the novels, short stories, poems, etc. that contain each theme.
The Attainable/Unattainable American Dream
Personal Goals and the Obstacles that Hinder Achievement
Independence & Personal Identity
Power & Control
Reality vs. Illusion
Moral and Intellectual Growth
PERIOD / GENRES / STYLE / CHARACTERISTICS / EXAMPLESPURITAN
1650-1750 / “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
REVOLUTIONARY/
AGE OF REASON
1750-1800 / “Speech in the Virginia Convention”
“Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”
“Poor Richard’s Almanac”
ROMANTICISM/
DARK ROMANTICISM
1800-1860
GOTHIC LITERATURE
1800-1850 / “Minister’s Black Veil”
“Young Goodman Brown”
The Scarlet Letter
Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
“The Raven”
“The Pit and the Pendulum”
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
Modern Gothic
(“Where is Here?”)
AMERICAN RENAISSANCE/
TRANSCENDENTALISM
1840-1860 / “Walden”
“Self-Reliance”
“Nature”
REALISM
1855-1900
Naturalism / Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
“The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
“The Jumping Frog…”
The Awakening
“The Open Boat”
MODERNISM
1900-1950 / The Great Gatsby
A Farewell to Arms
“A Rose for Emily”
The Catcher in the Rye
HARLEM RENAISSANCE
(Parallel to Modernism)
1920s / Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Crucible
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
Salem, Mass. - 1692
Reverend Parris
Tituba
Abigail Williams
Betty Parris
Mary Warren
Ann Putnam
Thomas Putnam
John Proctor
Elizabeth Proctor
Rebecca Nurse
Giles Corey
Putnam vs. Proctor
Reverend Hale
Judge Danforth
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
The plot revolves around the witchcraft hysteria that plagues Salem and splits the town into those who use the trials for their own ends and those who desire the good of the society.
Act I introduces most of the main characters in the play. The action takes place in Reverend Parris' home. Having discovered his daughter dancing naked in the woods with several other girls and his Negro slave, he has called in the Reverend Hale to investigate his suspicions of witchcraft. Various characters are introduced, and the reader learns of the pettiness of the Putnams, the superstition of Parris, the open-mindedness of Hale, the viciousness of Abigail, and, most importantly, the secret guilt of Proctor, who has committed adultery with Abigail.
Act II develops the need for Proctor to take action in defending the truth. The action takes place at the Proctors' home. John and his wife argue over whether he should denounce Abigail, and the reader learns of the rift that has developed between Proctor and his wife over his act of adultery. When officials of the court arrive and Elizabeth is arrested, John realizes that he can no longer stand by and not act.
Act III shows the attempts by Proctor and other citizens to oppose the court and the opposition they face by those with vested interest in the proceedings. Giles Corey and Francis Nurse denounce the trials and are subsequently arrested. Proctor admits to committing adultery with Abigail but is not believed.
Abigail, by pretending that Mary is "sending her spirit out" to attack her, induces Mary, who has been supporting Proctor, to abandon her testimony and accuse him to protect herself. Proctor is arrested, and Hale quits the court in disgust.
The final act focuses on Proctor's dilemma whether to live or accept death. He signs a confession, but, when he realizes that it will be used against his fellow accused, he tears it up. On a personal level, this act recovers his sense of goodness. In a larger sense, his act represents the tragic sacrifice of good as the only means to bring harmony back to a society gone awry.
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
The Scarlet Letter
Boston, Massachusetts – 1630s
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
Hester Prynne
Pearl
Roger Chillingworth
Arthur Dimmesdale
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
The Scarlet Letter follows the public shaming and punishment of a young woman named Hester Prynne in mid-17th century Boston (a.k.a. the Massachusetts Bay Colony). When Hester becomes pregnant, everyone believes her to be guilty of adultery: she has been separated from her husband for two full years, and the baby cannot be his. The magistrates and ministers order her to wear a scarlet letter "A" on the bodice of her dress, so that everyone can know about her adultery.
The Scarlet Letter begins when Hester is briefly released from prison so that she can be paraded through town, displaying her scarlet "A" while standing on top of the town scaffold. She carries her baby daughter, Pearl, in her arms. Pearl was born in prison. Hester steadfastly refuses to reveal the name of Pearl’s father, so that he might be saved from punishment.
Hester Prynne’s long lost husband arrives in the midst of this parade through town. He visits her in prison before her release and asks her not to tell anyone that he is in town. His plan is to disguise himself so that he can search for and seek revenge on her lover.
Hester’s husband tells the townspeople that he is a physician, and he adopts a fake name: Roger Chillingworth. Hester keeps his secret. Chillingworth soon realizes that the minister, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, is the likely father of Hester’s baby, and he haunts the minister’s mind and soul, day and night, for the next seven years.
The minister is too afraid to confess his sin publicly, but his guilt eats away at him; Chillingworth’s constant examination really makes him antsy. Seven years pass and, finally, Hester realizes the evil her husband has done to the man she loves, the father of her child. She reveals Chillingworth’s true identity to Dimmesdale, and the two concoct a plan to leave Boston and go to England, where they might hide from Hester’s husband and create a new life together.
The minister is ultimately unable to go through with the plan. Dimmesdale confesses his sin to the townspeople on the scaffold that had, seven years earlier, been the scene of Hester’s public shaming. His dying act is to throw open his shirt so that the scarlet “A” that he has carved onto his chest is revealed to his parishioners. Dimmesdale finds peace through confession.
When Chillingworth dies approximately a year after his rival, Dimmesdale, he leaves all his money and property to Pearl. Hester and Pearl finally escape the community where they have been outcasts for so many years and return to the Old World (a.k.a. England). However, many years later, Hester returns to the New England community that had been the site of her shame, resuming the scarlet letter of her own will.
When she dies, she is buried near the minister, and they share a gravestone. The gravestone contains an image, described as follows: "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules." In other words, marked on the headstone is a scarlet letter “A” drawn over a black background.
The Great Gatsby
Long Island, New York – 1920s
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
Nick Carraway
Jay Gatsby/James Gatz
Tom Buchanan
Daisy Buchanan
Jordan Baker
George Wilson
Myrtle Wilson
English III Honors Final Exam Study Guide
The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, is set in New York City and Long Island during the Prohibition era, a time author F. Scott Fitzgerald called "The Jazz Age" because of the materialism and feeling of immorality that accompanied newfound wealth in the post-World War I boom. Its protagonist is Jay Gatsby, a young wealthy man in love with a society girl from his past. The story tackles various issues such as wealth, class, materialism, and marital infidelity.