Engl 201 Final exam Review
th
Age of Reason and Revolution (18 century)
1.Elements of this period:
a.Intellectual growth
b.Imaginative literature
c.Movement away from faith to science (man’s reason)
d.Inquiry in all aspects of the world
i. Nature
ii.Classic and Bible
iii. Science
iv.Sense of person’s duty to achieve
v.Idea of a “personal religion”
Authors and works
1.Benjamin Franklin“The Way to Wealth” preface to Poor Richard Improved
a.What is the purpose of this piece?
Proving affordable information to the common people
b.What are the three things worse than taxes?
Idleness
Pride
Folly
2.Benjamin Franklin“The Speech of Polly Baker”
a.What do we take away from this piece? (What point is franklin trying to make?)
It addresses the gender inequality and the unjust justice system of its day
3.Crevecoeur“Letters from an American Farmer”
a.Letters were a way of Defining Americans.
b.Environment shapes the character /actions of the people.
c.What is the dark side of American nation that he describes?
Slavery – one explicit example is the story of the man in the cave
4.Thomas Paine“Common Sense”; from “Thoughts on the Present State of American
Affairs”; “The Crisis, No. 1”
a.Helped create the mood for revolution
b.What were the common concerns that he appealed to?
Anger against British rule/ treatment
Support for oppressed vision of country if no longer under British rule
Provided positive
5.Thomas PaineThe Age of Reason
a.What in particular did he disagree with (in relation to religion)
He didn’t support organized religion – his perspective is its flawed by man
6.Phillis Wheatley“On Being Brought from Africa to America,” “To The University of
Cambridge, in New England”
a.What was she focused on in these two poems? Be specific.
For the first poem, she focusses on spirituality and political liberty and also nature
For the second poem she told her students to take advantage of their opportunity and to resist
temptation and focus on their relationship with Christ
b.What is unique about her?
She was taught to read and right on her own
She learned other languages even though she was a slave
Age of Romanticism
1.Elements of this period
a.Subject matter
i.Quest for beauty
ii.Use of the far-away, the fanciful
iii.Historical past
iv. Grotesque
v.Appeals to imagination.
vi. Nature
1.Source of refuge
2.Source of knowledge
3.Revelation of God to individual
b.Definition of Fireside poets and be able to name two
Poems that are accessible & Popular
Families read their poetry when gathered around the fire
Two authors
William Bryant & Henry Longfellow
c.Value of Irving’s work?
i. Entertainment
ii.Literature that has little practical purpose
d.What is Poe given credit for creating?
Gothic terror –
Establishing literary genre – detective stories – influenced future writers
He’s also the father of detective fiction
e.Ralph Waldo Emerson was a member of what group?
He was in a group of social reformers
f.Melville was know as ?
The man who lived amongst the Cannibals
g.Melville’s most famous work?
Moby Dick
h.What is Alcott’s legacy?
She created relatable characters & introduced readers to educated strong female characters
i.Whitman’s greatest work?
Leaves of Grass
2.Authors and works:
a. Bryant “Thanatopsis”
i.Title means?
A consideration of death
ii.Romantic elements in poem?
Love of nature – fascination of death – emphasis on imagination – string sense of emotions
iii.How should you live your life? (before death)
You shouldn’t live life petrified of death – death is something that comes to all and we should embrace
it
iv.Who will you be with after you die?
The passage implies that all the generations of people before us whose tasted death will await us and
meet us when we die
b.Bryant“To a Waterfowl”
i.What is the poem about?
Endurance and following the direction of God
ii.What does the speaker learn after watching the bird?
That life is uncertain but there is a higher power with a guiding hand that has intellect of what’s
ahead though we do not
c.Washington Irving“Rip Van Winkle”
i.Most famous homegrown fairy tales (explain)
The otherworldly and the spiritual took hold of the readers at the time
ii.Life before the war and after the war for the villagers
The villagers moved on in the past 20 years, but nothing had truly change despite the revolution.
iii.Romantic elements?
d.Washington Irving“Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
i.Be able to explain the “chase.”
A ghost of a Horseman from the revolutionary war scares Cranes horse and catapults him off the
horse.
1.What Crane loses
Crane loses his pride and his courage and also his saddle
2.The aftermath
Crane decides to leave town and there is no longer an education for the students he taught.
3.Who “wins”?
Brom bones wins the heart of the woman they both were wanting
e.Edgar Allan Poe“The Fall of the House of Usher”
i.What are the gothic elements of this story?
The dark Tarn, architecture of the house, subverting the original meaning of light and manipulation of
light through improvements of windows.
ii.Explain the plot.
Narrator visits a sick friend whose sister is also sick. She’s assumed to be dead in a coma-like state and
Roderick Usher and the Narrator lock her up. She returns still alive and the shock eventually kills both
Ushers and the narrator escapes, the house crumbling into the tarn during his frantic rush
f.Ralph Waldo Emerson“The Divinity School Address”
i.Bottom line – how did Emerson see religion?
Emerson believed that humans were not corrupt and that we could eventually work our way up to
being like God- humans can accomplish Godhood
ii.Emerson sees true Christianity being lost how?
Through our tendency to trust in established religion rather than what you believe in your soul
g.Lydia Maria Child“The Quadroon”
i.Tragic elements
1.Edward’s Ambition (who does this affect)
Edwards ambition effects first his marriage and relationship with Rosalie which eventually costs him
his family. His ambition led to accomplish which cost literally the life of his former wife his life and his
daughter’s life.
2.Zarifa – her tragic outcome?
So much tragedy strikes in her life that she untimely is driven to the point of self-harm and commits
suicide.
ii.What is the point that Child is trying to make?
She demonstrating how nobody care for their king. Injustice is brushed under the rug and the same
cycle of destruction carries on.
h.Henry David Thoreau“On Civil Disobedience”
i.Member of what group?
Transcendelist
ii.What is American Government?
A tradition
iii.This work is a handbook for?
Bringing about a change
i.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow“A Psalm of Life”
i.This poem advocates?
This poem demonstrates optimizing the time at hand and making the most of the opportunity of life.
j.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow“The Slave Singing at Midnight”
i.Poem written in support of?
The Abolition of slavery
k.Angelina E Grimkefrom Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
i.Purpose of the work?
The purpose of this work was to unify southern women to subdue the patriarchy of their homes and
use their influence to rebel.
1.What is this tactic called?
Civil Disobedience
ii.Why is this work unique?
It was the only written appeal by a southern to other southern women to persuade southern women
that slavery was wrong
l.Sojourner Truth“Speech to the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron,
Ohio, 1851”
i.What did she challenge in this speech?
Women not being taught to read or write or have access to education
m.James M. Whitfield“Stanzas for the First of August”
i.What was the context for this poem?
The author of this poem wanted African Americans to emigrate to central America after the
emancipation proclamation
n.Herman Melville“Bartleby, the Scrivener, a Story of Wall Street”
i.What is ironic about the title?
They don’t usually ever go out on wall street and Bartleby never does his job
ii.What are the three times that the narrator tries to help Bartleby?
He tries to get Bartleby another job-
he visits him in prion –
he tries to talk him off the banister of the office
iii.What is the question that Melville poses about our responsibility to others?
Balance of work and helping people
iv.What is Bartleby’s famous line?
“I would prefer not to”
o.Louisa May Alcott“My Contraband”
i.What are the gothic and sentimental elements?
Clash of two brother – tragedy at Roberts death
ii.What are the two elements of a social context covered in this work – and explain
both.
Gender and racial aspects
Nurse was minority wasn’t respected because the time
Since Robert was a slave, he was not allowed to defend his own family as a man
p.Walt Whitman“Virgil Strange I kept on the Field One Night”
i.Explain the title.
The title demonstrates is father looking over his son’s body I believe.
ii.The speaker has two duties – what are they and which one did he tend to first?
Its to fight the battle of and to watch over as a watchman over his sons dead body
The first he tends to is him fighting the war
q.Walt Whitman“Beat, Beat Drum”
i.What does the repetition of specific lines do in the poem?
It Illustrates how the call of war has some sort of an effects on the life of all people.
ii.Each stanza focuses on a separate part of life. What are they? What happens
to each?
In careers and young life, then work and in the cities, then in society and personal relationships they
are called to war
r.Emily Dickinson“I cannot not live with you”
i.What are the three “things” that the speaker cannot do?
Speaker cannot live with “you”
Speaker cannot die with “you”
Speaker cannot “rise” with “you”
The narrator determined her lover was interfering with an intimate relationship with God.
ii.Bottom line – what sort of warning could this poem be giving the reader?
To not have anything as an idle. Anything that takes the position and attention of God in our lives is
something we should recognize and give up.
s.Emily Dickinson“Because I could not stop for Death”
i.What does the third stanza represent?
Passing into death beyond the setting sun
ii.What is the allegory?
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle
*Mobing into the unknwkn afterlife
iii.What song can this poem be sung to? “The Yellow Rose of Texas”
