English 251:  Introduction to Literature; Fall 99; L. Baker, Instructor

Prep Sheet for Exam #1

Section A  (30 points).  In an short essay (7-8 claims), do one of the following:

On the examination you will take, ALL of the options shown here for Section A will be offered.

A-1.  Explain how anagnorisis and peripeteia (aka recognition and reversal) work in the film Angel Heart.

A-3.  Explain how Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex could be considered an instance of an "initiation story."  (Suggestion for a way to proceed:  What circumstances in the situation here seem least suited to being digested under this concept?  What elements of the concept seem easiest to anchor in the facts of this play?)

A-4.  Explain how the concept of "tragic flaw" is not helpful in explaining the protagonist’s fate in Oedipus Rex.  (If you wish, you can show how a different notion of hamartia is more suitable to the situation in this play.)

A-5.  Describe the epiphantic moment in Carver’s "Cathedral," and explain what about it makes it function as that.

A-7.  Explain how some important effect in Carver’s "Cathedral" would be disrupted or destroyed if the author had made a different choice of point of view for the story.

Section B  (16 points). For EACH of the works you did not write upon in Section A, answer ONE question (each is worth 8 points) from the following list.  Be sure to go into relevant detail!

On the examination you will take, ONE of the options shown here for Section B WILL be eliminated for each work.

Angel Heart: 

B-1.  Explain how Angel Heart depends on the audience’s willingness to pretend to accept, for the purposes of the story, certain assumptions that it does not accept outside the confines of the film (i.e., in "real life").

B-2.  What is the role of Louis Cypher in the plot, and what is the significance of his name?

B-3.  What is something about this story that reminds us of Oedipus Rex?  (Do not write on this question if you write on B.4, below.)

B-4.  How does the effect of this story depend on surprise in a way that Oedipus Rex does not?  (If you write upon this question, do not write upon B-6, below.)

B-5.  What case can be made that what happens to Harry Angel is tragic?  What key fact makes the fate of Johnny Liebling, on the other hand, untragic?

Oedipus Rex:

B-6.  What is something that this play has in common with the film Angel Heart? (Do not write on this question if you wrote on B.2, above.)

B-7.  How does the effect of this play depend on the audience’s knowing the story’s basic outcome in advance? (Do not write on this question if you wrote upon B-3, above.)

B-8.  What is the role of Tiresias in this play?  (Who is he, what does he do, and what effect does he have on the protagonist?)

B-9.  What happens to Iocastê?  (How do we learn of this, and what do we understand as her motive?)

B-10.  How does Iocastê function as a foil to Oedipus?  What features of Oedipus' character does this serve to highlight?  How are these traits important in shaping our attitude towards him, and towards what happens to him?

"Cathedral"

B-11.  Why is the narrator so antagonistic towards Robert at the outset?

B-12.  What is the role of the narrator’s wife in the story?

B-13.  What accounts for the narrator's attitude towards Robert at the beginning?

B-14.  How would you describe the narrator's attitude towards Robert at the end?  What accounts for it?

B-15.  How is a cathedral a good choice for what the author casts it in the role of in this story?  How would the effect of the story be less rich if it Carver had chosen instead, say, an airport, or a battleship, or a Greek tragic theater, or some other object equally grand?  (You'd want to discuss only one.)

Section C  (30 points).  In this section, you will write a short essay (7-8 claims) on ONE of the following works:  Glaspell’s Trifles, Keillor’s Prodigal Son, Synge's Riders to the Sea, Updike’s "A&P", Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily", Poe’s "The Tell-Tale Heart", Mansfield’s "Miss Brill".  Be sure, however, to write on a work that you did not discuss in your out-of-class writing assignment.  Here are the questions you may choose among.

For a narrative work:  What is the point of view from which the story is told, and how does this choice of angle of vision contribute to the overall effect or theme of the piece?

For a dramatic work:  What is the central question the work is designed to leave the audience reflecting upon at the end?  How?  What conclusions do you reach in reflecting upon these?  Why?

Section D  (16 points).  For ALL BUT ONE of of the works you did not write upon in Section C, answer the question given.  Again, though, do not write on the work that you discussed in your out-of-class writing assignment.  Each answer is worth 4 points.

On the examination you will take, ONE of the options shown here for Section D MAY be eliminated for each work (except of course for the single question on Keillor's play).

Trifles

D-1.  State the two dramatic questions that arise in the course of this play, and explain how the second arises from the resolution of the first.  OR:  What parallels do the women appreciate between Minnie and the canary?

Prodigal Son

D-2.  What is some important difference between this story and the one that Jesus tells in the Bible?  In what does its importance consist?  Explain.  [At least 3 come immediately to mind.  Your job is to state one, cite some illustrative details, and lay out what you infer to be part of its thematic significance.]

Riders to the Sea

D-3.  Towards the end of the play, Cathleen remarks that Maurya is "broken."  What evidence does the play afford that this is not adequate as a description of the effect upon Maurya of the disaster?  OR:  What serves as the antagonist in the play?  How does Bartley die?  And how is his death foreshadowed?  What essential feature of tragedy do these facts constitute?  (There are additional essential features, but here you need comment only on this one.)

"A&P"

D-4.  What makes Sammy a good instance of a naïve narrator?  OR:  What are the connotations that attach to the concept of "sheep" in this story?  How?

"A Rose for Emily"

D-5.  What detail does the narrator disclose at the very end of the story, and what does this reveal in turn?  OR:  What facts in Emily's situation help account for the narrator's sympathy (and even admiration) towards her?

"The Tell-Tale Heart"

D-6.  What is the heart that "tells the tale," and what tale does it tell?  OR:  Whom is the speaker addressing, and what does he want from that person?  Does he get it?  (Explain.)

"Miss Brill"

D-7.  What are the two young people who appear at the end primarily interested in, and how does that shape their attitude towards the protagonist of the story?  OR:  How does the story presuppose the reader will bring into play, at a crucial moment in the story, a certain familiar conception of what heaven is like?

Section E  (8 points).  Answer TWO of the following.  (A single specific sentence can suffice.  Each question is worth 4 points.)

On the examination you will take, ALL of the options shown here for Section E will be offered.

E-1.  What, for the reader, is the epiphany in Browning’s poem "My Last Duchess"?  OR:  Whom is the speaker of the poem addressing, and what does he want to accomplish with this person?

E-2.  What details does the anonymous ballad "Sir Patrick Spens" focus on during the denouement?  OR:  What do we detect is an important conflict at work in this story?

E-3.  What is some important detail in the exposition of Frost’s "’Out, Out —‘"?  OR:  What is the climactic moment in this poem?

E-4.  What genre of poem is Theodore Roethke’s "Root Cellar"?  (Cite something specific about the poem that fits what you say.)  OR:  What is the speaker’s attitude towards what he draws our attention to?  (Cite something specific about the poem by way of illustration.)