1 Short-Answer question each from Parts I, II, and II (15 points each)
2 Short-Answer questions from Part IV (15 points each)
and 1 Mini-Essay question from Part IV (25 points)
Please double-space your answers in a Word document, and clearly number each answer so that I know what question you’re answering.
Note that my definition of “a good, well-developed paragraph” is at least 6-8 sentences.
For your Short Answers, be as specific as possible. For the Mini-Essay, be as specific and thorough as possible, and use at least 2 or
more quotes from the text(s).
Please upload your answers through the BlackBoard Safe/Assign link marked “View/Complete” within this assignment.
YOUR ANSWERS ARE DUE NO LATER THAN MIDNIGHT, TUESDAY, 4/28.
I. SHORT ANSWER: Barnes’s A History of the World in 10½ Chapters
Answer 1 of the following in 1-2 paragraphs. (15 points)
1. Using two chapters or characters, discuss how Barnes’s novel argues that absolute certainty is difficult at best and a total myth at
worst.
2. Barnes’s novel takes aim at several satiric targets. Discuss one of the targets of his satire, how he makes his satiric points about
it, and what he ultimately is saying about it.
II. SHORT ANSWER: On-the-spot Poetry Analysis
Analyze any 1 of the following poems from our Norton textbook in 1-2 paragraphs: (15 points)
Maxine Kumin’s “Woodchucks” (767-768)
Kelly Cherry’s “Alzheimer’s” (784-785)
Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” (791-792)
William Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” (891)
E.E. Cummings’s “in Just” (1080-1081).
III. SHORT ANSWER: “Fun” questions
Answer 1 of the following in 1-2 paragraphs. (15 points)
1. Imagine that one of the texts we’ve studied is a question. What is it asking, and how does it answer that question?
2. Ask a question to any of the authors we’ve studied regarding his or her text, and then attempt to answer that question as the author
might have answered it (not necessarily in the voice or style of the writer, but in terms of what the author might say in response to your
question).
3. Be a critic: Discuss the quality of one of the following works, explaining whether it was good, bad, a little of both, or something
else, being sure to be specific and thorough in explaining why you give it that assessment. The works to choose from: Shepard’s True West,
Barnes’s A History of the World in 10½ Chapters, Lowell’s “For the Union Dead,” Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” or
Herlihy’s “Love and the Buffalo.”
IV. SHORT ANSWER AND MINI-ESSAY
Choose 2 of the following for a SHORT ANSWER (1-2 paragraphs each, for 15 points each), and 1 other one for a MINI-ESSAY (3-5 paragraphs,
with no formal intro or conclusion paragraph, for 25 points):
1. In Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” what is Prufrock’s main problem?
2. In Herlihy’s Terrible Jim Fitch, what is Jim’s main problem?
3. In Herlihy’s Terrible Jim Fitch, what is Sally’s main problem?
4. Discuss the concept of unstable identity in the works of two of the following authors: Hemingway, O’Connor, Shepard, Eliot, Williams.
5. Compare and/or contrast what Barnes’s A History of the World in 10½ Chapters and Lowell’s “For the Union Dead” seem to be saying about
history.
6. Any story about an animal or monster is not really about animals or monsters but is really in some way or another about people. If that
is true, discuss the human theme(s) in any 1 of the 3 short stories from the “Monsters: An Album” section from our Norton textbook
(Atwood, “Lusus Naturae,” 224; Russell, “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” 229; or Litt, “The Monster,” 241).
7. Choose any poem in our anthology that we did not study this semester and analyze it. (Do not, of course, use the poem you used in Part
II above.)
8. Come up with your own mini-essay question about any text we studied this semester, and answer it.
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]
