Final+Exam+Review

American Literature Final Exam Review

100 Multiple Choice Questions.

You will be allowed to use your notes and journals on this section. Questions 1-6 deal with Unit 6, and there are two quotations from the literature Questions 7-27 deal with Unit 7, and there are 8 quotations from the literature. Questions 28-35 deal with //The Grapes of Wrath// in general Questions 36-85 deal with quotations from //The Grapes of Wrath// Questions 86-99 deal with Unit 5, and there are 5 quotations from the literature Question 100 is a surprise, and it is really cool

There is an extra-credit matching section in which I give you passages from //Grapes of Wrath// and ask you to match them with the character who said each quotation.

You may use your own notes on the whole test, but they must be your own notes in your own writing in your own notebook. You may not use annotation packets, printouts, photocopies, etc. Notes may not be shared or passed.

Most of the multiple-choice questions deal with passages from the literature. Below you will see the passages that will appear on the exam. Many of the questions are custom-tailored to the passage, but below are a few of the types of questions I will ask about the quotes. If you can answer well these questions about all the quotes below, you will do well on the exam.

What is the thematic significance of this passage? (in other words, “What theme of the literature does this passage contribute to?”)What literary device(s) is/are used in this passage?Who is speaking? What does it mean when [character name] says “[quote]"? What is the purpose of this passage? What does this passage show us about [blank]? Also, make sure you understand what the passage means and what its context is in the literature.

Final Exam Passages:

UNIT 6:

This passage is from Bret Harte's "The Outcasts of Poker Flat ”Mr. Oakhurst settled himself coolly to the losing game before him.

This passage is from “Under the Lion’s Paw ”Haskins sat down blindly on a bundle of oats nearby, and with staring eyes and drooping head went over the situation. He was under the lion's paw.

UNIT 7 In a Station of the Metro, by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;Petals on a wet, black bough.

The Red Wheelbarrow, by William Carlos Williams

So much depends/ upon/ a red wheel/ barrow glazed with rain/ water/ beside the white/ chickens

Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "Recuerdo" ends with these lines:

And she wept, "God Bless you!" for the apples and pears, And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

The next passage is from e.e. cumming's poem "anyone lived in a pretty how town."

one day anyone died I guess(and noone stooped to kiss his face) busy folk buried them side by side little by little and was by was

The next 2 passages are from Frost's "Mending Wall."

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it And spills the upper boulders in the sun, And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

I see him there, Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed

The next passages are from Frost's "Provide Provide."

The witch that came (the withered hag) To wash the steps with pail and rag, Was once the beauty Abishag,

The picture pride of Hollywood. Too many fall from great and good For you to doubt the likelihood.

Better to go down dignified With boughten friendship at your side Than none at all. Provide, provide!

The following passages are from The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: (First page # Field Edition. Second page # Car Edition.)

The women studied the men’s faces secretly, for the corn could go, as long as something else remained. . . After a while the faces of the watching men lost their bemused perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant. Then the women knew that they were safe and that there was no break (6/4).

The women watched the men, watched to see whether the break had come at last. The women stood silently and watched. And where a number of men gathered together, the fear went from their faces, and anger took its place. And the women sighed with relief, for they knew it was all right -- the break had not come; the break would never come as long as fear could turn to wrath (556/480).

“A guy got to get ahead. Why, I’m thinkin’ of takin one of them correspondence school courses. Mechanical engineering. It’s easy. Just study a few easy lessons at home. I’m thinkin’ of it. Then I won’t drive no truck. Then I’ll tell other guys to drive trucks” (15/11).

As the embankment grew steeper and steeper, the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle. . . . A red ant ran into the shell, and suddenly head and legs snapped in. . . The red ant was crushed between body and legs. And one head of wild oats was clamped into the shell by a front leg (20/15).

“Here I got the sperit sometimes an’ nothin’ to preach about. I got the call to lead people, an’ no place to lead ‘em” (26/21). `Here’s me preachin’ grace. An’ here’s them people gettin’ grace so hard they’re jumpin’ an’ shoutin’. Now they say layin’ up with a girl comes from the devil. But the more grace a girl got in her, the quicker she wants to go out in the grass’ (28/22).

`Why do we got to hang it on god or Jesus? Maybe. . . it’s all men an’ all women we love; maybe that’s the Holy Sperit -- the human sperit -- the whole shebang. Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of (31/24).

Pa says, `John, you gonna eat that whole damn pig?’ An’ he says, `I aim to, Tom, but I’m scairt some of her’ll spoil ‘fore I get her et. . .’ . . . when he drove off he hadn’t et much more’n half. Pa says, `Whyn’t you salt her down?’ But not Uncle John; when he wants pig he wants a whole pig, an’ when he’s through, he don’t want no pig hangin’ around. So off he goes, and Pa salts down what’s left (38/31).

You don’t knowPa.If he kills a chicken most of the squawkin’ will come from Pa, not the chicken. He don’t never learn. He’s always savin’ a pig for Christmus and then it dies in September of bloat or somepin so you can’t eat it. When Uncle John wanted pork he et pork. He had her (38/31).

The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s a monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it (43/35). He could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth. . . (46/37)

Behind the harrows, the long seeders -- twelve curved iron penes erected in the foundry, orgasms set by gears, raping methodically, raping without passion (46/37-38).

“You sharin’ with us, Muley Graves?” he asked.Muley fidgeted in embarrassment. “I ain’t got no choice in the matter.”. . . “That ain’t like I mean it. . .” (62-63/51).

Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlage of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here “I lost my land” is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate -- We lost //our// land” (194/165).

But the worried eyes are never calm, and the pouting mouth is never glad. The big car cruising along at sixty.I want a cold drink (199/169).

“Yeah,” Tom said. “On’y I wisht they was some way to make her ‘thout takin’ her away from somebody else” (241/206).

“If he needs a million acres to make him feel rich, seems to me he needs it ‘cause he feels awful poor inside hisself, and if he’s poor in hisself, there ain’t no million acres gonna make him feel rich, and maybe he’s disappointed that nothin’ he can do’ll make him feel rich -- not rich like Mis’ Wilson was when she give her tent when Grampa died. . . I never seen nobody that’s busy as a prairie dog collectin’ stuff that wasn’t disappointed” (266/227).

Rose of Sharon watched secretly. And when she saw Ma fighting with her face, Rose ofSharonclosed her eyes and pretended to be asleep (275/235)

“ . . . Thank you.” He put the cup on the box with the others, waved his hand, and walked down the line of tents. And Ma heard him speaking to the people as he went.Ma put down her head and she fought with a desire to cry” (392/337).

“An’ they was little children didn’t know no better. . . an’ they was pretendin’ to be stuff they wasn’t. I didn’ go near. But I hearn ‘em talkin’ what they was a-doin’. the devil was jus’ a-struttin’ through this here camp” (396/341).

. . . and in the eyes of the people there is a failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage (449/385).

‘French Revolution -- all them fellas that figgered her out got their heads chopped off. Always that way,’ he says. ‘Jus’ as natural as rain. You didn’t do it for fun now way. Doin’ it ‘cause you have to. ‘Cause it’s you. . .Anyways, you do what you can. An’. . . the on’y thing you got to look at is that ever’time they’s a little step fo’ward, she may slip back a little, but she never slips clear back. . .’ (493/425).

“Listen,” he said. “You fellas don’ know what you’re doin’. You’re helpin’ to starve kids” (495/426).

Tom laughed uneasily, “Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a soul of his own, but on’y a piece of a big one -- an’ then ”“Then what, Tom?”“Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where -- wherever you look. wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad and’ --- I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build --why, I’ll be there” (537/463).

Her hand moved behind his head and supported it. her fingers moved gently in his hair. She looked up and across the barn, and her lips came together and smiled mysteriously (581/502).

Unit 5

from Frederick Douglas’ //My Bondage and My Freedom//

We were both victims to the same overshadowing evil -- //she// as mistress, //I// as slave. I will not censure her harshly; she cannot censure me, for she knows I speak but the truth, and have acted in my opposition to slavery, just as she herself would have acted in a reverse of circumstances.

From "The Gettysburg Address"

. . . this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

From "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself, In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time, Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.

From Emily Dickinson's "Apparently with no surprise"Apparently with no surpriseTo any happy FlowerThe Frost beheads it at its play--In accidental power--

From Dickinson's "Success is counted sweetest"

Not one of all the purple Host Who took the Flag today Can tell the definition So clear of Victory.

As he defeated--dying-- On whose forbidden ear The distant strains of triumph Burst agonized and clear!