ENGLISH FINAL EXAM

2

Long Essay Questions (50 points each)

Each essay should be 3-4 strong paragraphs. The strongest essay response will be organized around ideas rather than around texts. In other words, each paragraph will present examples from more than one text. Be sure to provide actual quotes from the literature and to cite page numbers.

You do NOT need to provide a Works Cited page.

Long Essay 1

Walter Wink argues that in a world ruled by the god of violence “order must continually be imposed upon us from on high: men over women, masters over slaves, priests over laity, aristocrats over peasants, rulers over people…in short, the Myth of Redemptive Violence is the story of the victory of order over chaos by means of violence.” In contrast, Frederick Buechner argues that art focuses our attention on “ineffable ordinariness and particularity” and helps us listen to “social injustice…head-in-the-sand religiosity…[and] international treacheries and power-plays.” In other words, Buechner might say that art asks us to recognize and counteract the myth of redemptive violence by stopping, looking, and listening to the lives of Others around us.

Using Wink and Buechner, synthesize at least three texts we have read this semester that illustrate the way that art can identify and challenge the use of violence to maintain order in a society.

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Long Essay 2

The speaker of Li Bo’s “South of the Walls We Fought” concludes that “the Sage will use [weapons] only / when he cannot do otherwise” (1189). Throughout the semester, we have seen several texts that both glorify and undercut the value of violence. Despite Wink’s concern that the use of violence can easily become addictive, one might argue that there are times when it is necessary to resort to violence. Identify two or three situations in different texts we have read throughout the semester that seem to present justifiable violence. Using Wink’s and Buechner’s ideas, discuss how the character either DID avoid the pitfalls or COULD have avoided the pitfalls if they failed.

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