Description
Choose one question from the poetry section and respond as thoroughly as possible (50 points).
• What are some of the characteristics of American poetry at the turn of the 20th Century in particular and what do the modern poets have to say about poetry itself? (Use specific examples from Moore, Wallace, and Williams to illustrate).
• What evidence is there to support Frost’s statement, “You know, I’ve often said that every poem solves something for me in life. I go so far as to say that every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world.” Explain.
• True or False. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is an interior, dramatic monologue. Explain.
Choose one question from the short story section and respond thoroughly (50 points).
• What does the theme of “The Yellow Wall-Paper” suggest about women in general and about women writers specifically during the time it was written?
• True or False. Regionalist writing and Local Color writing are the same things. Explain your answer using specific support from the short stories by Charles Chesnutt and Joel Chandler Harris and consider the narrator’s perspective therein.
• What symbolism exists in the “Revelation” by Flannery O’Connor and “Separating” by John Updike, and how do these symbols affect the themes and conflicts in each story?
Choose one question from the drama section and respond thoroughly (50 points).
• What are some of the props of Blanche’s magic and how do these props help her define her reality?
• What happens when Blanche tells the truth (or when the “truth” is told by someone else), and how does this become a theme in the play?
• What similarities can be found in the two plays, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Streetcar Named Desire? Explain using the drama elements as points of consideration.
Choose one of the three novels presented (or argue for your own American novel choice) as the most significant works of 20th Century American literature and explain how the novel explores typically American themes (bonus).
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Their Eyes Were Watching God
• The Great Gatsby