English 207 Take-Home

Answer all 10 questions (TYPED!; worth up to 10 points each for a total of up to 100 points).  I expect 2 complete, informative but concise paragraphs for each answer.  If modestly employed quotes from the works are used, cite according to MLA; however, do not use a Works Cited page.  I expect answers to reflect understanding of the texts as discussed in class as well as sufficient depth of critical thinking.  It is not necessary to retype the questions.

 

1.       Briefly compare/contrast how the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne reflect a disturbing reckoning with the past (especially in the American sense).

Works to use

Hawthorne’s -"The May-Pole of Merry Mount"

Hawthorne’s  "The Minister's Black Veil"

Poe’s  "Annabel Lee" and "Ligeia"

Poe’s  "The Fall of the House of Usher"

 

2.       How do any 2 authors covered in class after the midterm make use of and/or react to the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson?

POSSIBLE AUTHORS TO USE

Edgar Allan Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Washington Irving

James Fenimore Cooper

Abraham Lincoln

Henry David Thoreau

Fredrick Douglass

Walt Whitman

Herman Melville

Emily Dickinson

Rebecca Harding Davis

Louisa May Alcott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.       Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are arguably the 2 most important 19^th-century contributors to American poetry, yet both represent 2 completely different approaches and attitudes.  Explain, using examples from their respective works.

WORKS TO USE

Walt Whitman’s:"Song of Myself"

Emily Dickinsons Works

 

 

 

4.       How are Gothic conventions differently used in “Rip Van Winkle,” “Bartleby the Scrivener,” and “Life in the Iron-Mills” to address concerns of the American Gothic. WORKS TO USE:

Washington Irving: “Rip Van Winkle”

 Herman Melville: “Bartleby the Scrivener”

Rebecca Harding Davis: “Life in the Iron-Mills”

 

 

5.       How do Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and “My Contraband” address similar issues?

WORKS TO USE

Ann Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl

: My Contraband

 

 

 

6.       How do Uncle Tom’s Cabin and “My Contraband” make similar use of popular literary conventions?

WORKS TO USE

: My Contraband

Harriet Beecher Stowe: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

 

 

 

 

7.       How do Lincoln, Thoreau, and Douglass each approach the issue of American hypocrisy when it comes to the Declaration of Independence?

WORKS TO USE:

Abraham Lincoln: Presidents Inauguration

Fredrick Douglass: What to a slave is the 4^th of July

Henry David Thoreau:  "Resistance to Civil Government

 

 

 

8.       How is cultural doubling similarly used to complicate the issue of American racial identity in The Last of the Mohicans and “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man”?

WORKS TO USE:

James Fenimore Cooper: The Last of the Mohicans

William Apes: “An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attachments:

• 1501749388-207 Final Exam.docx