American Literature

American Literature

American Literature II Final Exam

Choose 2 responses from the first 3 questions and 1 from the last 2 to answer (3 responses total, 33 pts each). Responses should be a minimum of one page, single spaced, 12pt font. Incorporate direct quotes in support of your claims. No outside/secondary sources, the responses should be your own original ideas. Due to turnitin on Blackboard before the end of your scheduled final exam time.

Choose 2:

1. Discuss the theme of “regret” and its historical importance expressed by Fitzgerald in “Babylon Revisited” and Hemmingway’s “Snows of Kilimanjaro”. How do money and time play a role? Explain.
2. Discuss the anguish present in the poetry of Plath and Ginsberg. How does it operate on a personal level? Social level? Explain.
3. Discuss how the central characters define being “good” in Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man” and O’Connor’s “Good Country People”. How are they similar in their thinking? How do they differ? Explain.

Choose 1:

1. Compare & contrast the concept of the “American Dream” and how it is portrayed in Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
2. Compare & contrast the theme of conflict with tradition as seen in both Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” and Frost’s “Mending Wall” .

Solution Preview

Q1. The book, “Babylon Revisited” by Fitzgerald starts with Charlie Wales, the main character who is an American expatriate coming back to Paris, the place of plentiful drinking and partying. Ever since the stock market crack in 1929, Charlie has sobered and now looks with a mixture of bewilderment and disgust at the destructive lifestyle he used to live. “And he suddenly realize[s] the meaning of the word ‘dissipate’ – to dissipate into thin air,

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