American Literature Fall Semester Exam Review 2016 1. Over the summer, you were to read Of Mice and Men. Who wrote this book? Explain the theme of the book. 2. Describe the following characters: Lennie George Candy Curley Curley s Wife Crooks Slim Aunt Clara 3. What are the earliest examples of American Literature? What do these stories have in common? How were these stories passed on? 4. Why was Coyote one of the most important Animal People in Native American Literature? 5. What is a Trickster Tail? 1 6. Describe the following characters: a. Coyote b. Young Buffalo c. Buffalo Bull d. The Old Woman
7. Describe The World on the Turtle s Back. What was the theme of this story? 8. Who are the right-handed and left-handed twins? 9. Why is The Great Tree important to the Iroquois creation myth? 10. Why do the Iroquois dance? 11. Why do Native American myths have so many different translations? 12. Define the following: a. Archetypal Character b. Historical Narrative c. Slave Narrative d. Primary Source e. Secondary Source 13. What does La Relacion mean? What was the original intent for La Relacion? How do we know? 14. In what part of the United States does La Relacion discuss? Who wrote it? 2 15. What was the slave narrative we read in class during the first quarter? What does it discuss?
16. Why were Slave Narratives such as The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano written? 17. Why are descriptive details important to the success of a narrative? Describe the living conditions on board the slave ship. 18. Who was king of England when the Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower? Why did they come to the new world? 19. Who wrote On Plymouth Plantation? According to this account, what did the Puritans do first when they arrived in North America? Which Native American helped the Pilgrims forge peace with the Wampanoag? Who helped them plant crops and learn survival skills for the wilds of North America? 20. Which document was described in On Plymouth Plantation and was used while drafting the U.S. Constitution? 21. The first known Puritan writers wrote about what common themes? 22. Who was Anne Bradstreet? What did she write? Why was she an interesting Puritan writer? 3
23. What does Edward Taylor say about the relationship between a wife and husband in his poem Huswifery? Why is this important? 24. Who wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God? 25. What were the characteristics of a fire and brimstone speech? How is Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God an example of these characteristics? 26. What is a metaphor? Why are they used? 27. What is an allegory? What allegory is used in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God? 28. What is imagery? 29. What is loaded language? What is an example of loaded language used in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God? 30. What is a simile? Write an example below. 31. What is an allusion? What is a biblical allusion then? What biblical allusion is used in the last page of Sinners of the Hands of an Angry God? 32. Who wrote The Crucible? What are the major themes of this play? 4
33. What is the setting of The Crucible? 34. Describe the following characters from The Crucible: Betty Parris Tituba Abigail Williams Reverend Parris John Proctor Elizabeth Proctor Mary Warren Giles Corey Reverend Hale Ezekiel Cheever Judge Hathorne 35. What is direct characterization? 36. What is indirect characterization? 37. What do stage directions tell you in a drama? 38. What are the 24 tenets of Puritan Life? 5
39. Why did the Puritans come to North America? 40. Why were the witch hunts so successful in developing a mob mentality? 41. What were some of the signs that someone was a witch? 42. What gift does Mary give Elizabeth? 43. What are the various punishments that someone faced for witchcraft? 44. Why was The Crucible written? 45. What are logical appeals? What are emotional appeals? What are ethical appeals? 46. What is rhetoric? 47. What is a rhetorical question? Why is it used? 48. What is antithesis? 49. What is repetition and parallelism? 6
50. What are the following types of fallacies and an example of each? Circular reasoning Hasty generalization Non sequitur 51. Who says Give me liberty or give me death? In what speech is this said? 52. Who wrote The Declaration of Independence? Who helped edit this document? When was this document signed? 53. Describe the format of The Declaration of Independence. What does the document do to make the intents of the colonists clear? 54. What rights are specified in the Declaration? 55. What audience did Thomas Paine write The Crisis for? 56. What is a sunshine patriot? 57. What is tone? 7
58. What is an autobiography? 59. How many virtues did Franklin include in his autobiography? List them and make a notation of the virtue Franklin claimed was most important. 60. Describe how Franklin attempts to better his life. Did he ever achieve perfection? Why or why not. 61. What is an aphorism? What publication did Franklin create that used aphorisms? Give an example of an aphorism. 62. Describe each of the following: a. Complex Sentence b. Compound Sentence c. Loose sentence d. Periodic Sentence e. Balanced Sentence f. Chiasmus g. Asyndeton h. Polysyndeton i. Anaphora j. Epistrophe 8
For numbers 63-71 use the following information from an online scholarly journal article: Journal Title: Educational Leadership; Volume 70, Number 4 Article Title: Research Says: Nonfiction Reading Promotes Student Success Author Info: Bryan Goodwin and Kirsten Miller Date Published: January 2013 Date Accessed: December 3, 2016 Pages: 80-82 Even in classrooms, nonfiction appears to be in short supply. Duke (2000) conducted a study of 20 1st grade classrooms and found that informational texts constituted, on average, just 9.8 percent of texts in classroom libraries. The mean number of informational books per child was just 1.2 in low-income districts and a still relatively paltry 3.3 in high-income districts. On average, students spent just 3.6 minutes with informational text each day. Lower-income students fared worse, logging just 1.9 minutes of exposure to informational text (for example, during student reading, teacher read-alouds, or writing activities) during an average school day. 63. What is a signal phrase? Create a sentence utilizing a signal phrase and underline the portion of the sentence that is the signal phrase. 64. Create an MLA in-text parenthetical citation for a piece of paraphrased information. 65. Create an MLA Works Cited entry for this information. 66. Create an APA Resources entry for this information. 9
67. Create an APA in-text parenthetical citation for a piece of paraphrased information. 68. Create an APA in-text parenthetical citation for a direct quotation that uses the author s last name in the signal phrase. 69. Create an APA in-text parenthetical citation for a direct quotation that does not use the author s last name in the signal phrase. 70. What does the header look like in an MLA research paper? 71. What does the header look like in an APA research paper cover page? 72. What do APA and MLA each stand for respectively? 73. How do you determine if a source is scholarly? 74. What is an abstract? How long are they typically? What are they used for? 10
75. Name three major differences that exist between writing an APA paper and an MLA paper. 11