1)Explain how the author of one of the works of fiction we’ve read this term uses TWO to THREE formalist literary devices (point of view, setting, plot, character, tone, imagery, symbolism, irony, etc.) or a critical approach (feminist criticism, Marxist criticism, gender criticism, etc.) in order to create a successful story. Following is a list of works you may want to choose from: “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin, “Love in L.A.” by Dagoberto Gilb, “No One’s a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, or “Girl” by Jamaica Kinkaid .
2)Explain what you feel is the theme of one of the plays that we’ve read (Trifles by Susan Glaspell, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, or Oedipus Rex by Sophocles).
3) Identify two to three moments of significance in which poetic devices (for instance, “metaphor,” “simile,” “imagery,” “diction,” etc.) are being used in the poem below and discuss what you feel the poet is trying to accomplish by using these devices. Make sure to be specific about what type of device is being used and how (in other words, to what end or to accomplish what) in each section of the poem you choose to discuss. This short answer will be graded on content alone. (Worth 30 pts)
Dulce Et Decorum Est (by Wilfred Owen)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Notes:
Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”