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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2015-2016) B.E.G.E.-101 From Language to Literature Disclaimer/Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the Questions given in the Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Private Teacher/Tutors/Authors for the help and Guidance of the student to get an idea of how he/she can answer the Questions of the Assignments. We do not claim 100% accuracy of these sample answers as these are based on the knowledge and cabability of Private Teacher/Tutor. Sample answers may be seen as the Guide/Help Book for the reference to prepare the answers of the Question given in the assignment. As these solutions and answers are prepared by the private teacher/tutor so the chances of error or mistake cannot be denied. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/Solutions. Please consult your own Teacher/Tutor before you prepare a Particular Answer and for up-to-date and exact information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university. N Answer all the questions. Q. 1. Read the following poem by Maya Angelou carefully and answer the following questions: You may write me down in history With you bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I I. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? Cause I walk like I ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes spriniging high, Still I I. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don t you take it awful hard Cause I laugh like I ve got gold mines Diggin in my own back yard You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I I. 3
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprice That I dance like I ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history s shame Up from a past that s rooted in pain I m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear Into a daybreak that s wonderously clear Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and Nthe hope of the slave.. Q. 1. (a) The writer addresses You several times in the poem. Who is meant by You, and how can we tell? Ans. You here refers to someone who is jealous of the poet s prosperity. He may be the poet's husband or a former lover who does not like the poet s achievements in her life. We can tell this by reading the lines like you may write me down in history, Does my sassiness upset you?, Do you want to see me broken, You may shoot with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, and You may kill me with your hatefulness. Q. 1. (b) I ve got oil wells, I ve got gold mines, I ve got diamonds. What is the effect of repetition here and the particular images used? Ans. The repetition increases the poem s aesthetics and sounds good. It also emphasises on the poet s ego with the words I ve got. The poet has used the image of wealth. Oil wells, gold mines, and diamonds refer to wealth that the poet feels to have possessed. This is the feeling the poet has that she feels herself wealthy and she has the potential to rise. Q. 1. (c) In some of the other similes the speaker compares herself to moons, suns and other natural phenomena. What do you think she means to convey by such images? Ans. With the images, the poet wants to convey that she will rise. She will emerge like the moon, sun and other natural phenomena. Q. 1. (d) What do you understand by the huts of history s shame? Ans. The huts of history s shame means the place where something shameful had happened may be in the life of the poet and her husband or the person she refers to. It refers to the house where they may have stayed together once and now they are separated and lived. Q. 1. (e) What are the inherited by gifts that the huts of history s shame? Ans. The inherited gifts the poet may be referring to her optimism, her thinking ability, the capacity to rise, her possession of what she said oil s well, gold mine and diamond, the wealth. Q. 1. (f) is repeated several times. What does these words convey? Ans.. implies the poet s hopefulness, her upbeat attitudes, her optimism and her expectation that she would do good with her potentialities she has with unending sources of wealth. She expects that she will emerge as a winner and nobody can let her down with their ill-wills. Q. 1. (g) The Poet makes use of questions as a device. What is the impact of these questions? 4
Ans. The questions the poet raises to emphasise on what she is asking to her antagonist. She asks whether her sassiness upsets him, if he wants to she her broken and whether her sexiness upsets him. Q. 1. (h) It is hard to miss the energy of this poem. What devices of language of contibute to this impression of energy? Ans. The repetition of the words and the use of images, similes and metaphorical expression contribute to the impression of energy. Q. 1. (i) What do you like about the poem? Dicuss. Ans. I like most the poet s bold expression, her confidence in herself, the appropriate use of words to emphasise on what the poet is saying, the repetition of words like and the simple language. Q. 2. Write short notes on the following giving examples wherever necessary: (i) Literal vs. metaphorical meaning Ans. Literal meaning denotes that all words are in strict accordance with their original meanings. In other words, to apply the literal meaning is to take the words in their most basic sense without metaphor or exaggeration. For example: The comedian died on the stage.in the literal meaning, the comedian actually died. Metaphorical meaning identifies something as being the same as some unrelated thing for rhetorical effect, thus highlighting the similarities between the two. While a simile compares two items, a metaphor directly equates them, and so does not necessarily apply Nany distancing words of comparison, such as like or as. For example, All the world s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances[...] This quotation expresses a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage. By figuratively asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses the points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the behavior of the people within it. (ii) Countable and Uncountable Nouns Ans. Countable nouns are for things we can count using numbers. They have a singular and a plural form. The singular form can use the determiner a or an. If you want to ask about the quantity of a countable noun, you ask How many? combined with the plural countable noun.example: boy boys; girl girls. Uncountable nouns are for the things that we cannot count with numbers. They may be the names for abstract ideas or qualities or for physical objects that are too small or too amorphous to be counted (liquids, powders, gases, etc.). Uncountable nouns are used with a singular verb. They usually do not have a plural form.examples: tea, sugar and water. (iii) Structure words Ans. Structure words are Determiners, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Pronouns. Words like so, but and however are all examples of structure words. These are less likely to be emphasised or stressed when we speak a sentence out loud. If speaking to a baby or trying to communicate to someone who doesn t understand English very well, we could get our message across by missing out the structure words. (iv) Difference between alliteration and assonance Ans. Alliteration is a literary device identified by the repeated sound of the first consonant in a series of multiple words, or the repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables of a phrase. For example, "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers". Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences, and together with alliteration and consonance serves as one of the building blocks of verse. Assonance does not have to be a rhyme; the identity of which depends merely on sequence of both vowel and consonant sounds. Thus, assonance is a resemblance of units that are generally less than a syllable. For example, That solitude which suits abstruser musings. Q. 3. What is rhetoric? Giving examples from a literary text which you have received. Write about the use of repetition as a rhetorical device. Ans. Rhetoric is the ancient art of argumentation and discourse. When we write or speak to convince others of what we believe, we are rhetors. When we analyze the way rhetoric works, we are rhetoricians. The earliest 5
known studies of rhetoric come from the Golden Age, when philosophers of ancient Greece discussed logos, ethos, and pathos. Writers in the Roman Empire adapted and modified the Greek ideas. Across the centuries, medieval civilizations also adapted and modified the theories of rhetoric. Even today, many consider the study of rhetoric a central part of a liberal arts education. One assumption implicit in the art of rhetoric is that people even intelligent people can disagree with each other. Sometimes they disagree with each other about deeply held beliefs. When such disagreements become pronounced, there are two typical results either they begin to fight, or they engage in debate. The choice is up to every country and every citizen do we solve our problems by using a bullet or by engaging in rational discourse? Mild ethos or a military invasion? Pathos or plastique? Rhetoric removes disagreement from the arena of violence and turns it into debate a healthy and necessary step in any democracy. For any headway to occur in a debate, wise participants should begin through figuring out what assumptions drive each group. Usually, when two groups disagree, it is because they do not share certain assumptions. The rhetor must assess her audience and then figure out what assumptions operate in her own argument and then what assumptions operate in the arguments made by others. Add: Repetition is the simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to secure emphasis. This is such a common literary device that it is almost never even noted as a figure of speech. It also has connotations to listing for effect and is used commonly by famous poets such as Philip Larkin. N Today, as never before, the fates of men are so intimately linked to one another that a disaster for one is a disaster for everybody. (Natalia Ginzburg, The Little Virtues, 1962). Q. 4. What is irony? Giving examples from you own reading, discuss irony of the situation. You may give a brief summary of the story and suggest where the irony lies. Ans. Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or event in which what appears, on the surface, to be the case, differs radically from what is actually the case. Irony may be divided into categories such as: verbal, dramatic, and situational. Verbal, dramatic and situational irony are often used for emphasis in the assertion of a truth. The ironic form of simile, used in sarcasm, and some forms of litotes can emphasize one s meaning by the deliberate use of language which states the opposite of the truth, denies the contrary of the truth, or drastically and obviously understates a factual connection. The Oxford English Dictionary defines irony as a condition of affairs or events of a character opposite to what was, or might naturally be, expected; a contradictory outcome of events as if in mockery of the promise and fitness of things. Situational irony,... is most broadly defined as a situation where the outcome is incongruous with what was expected, but it is also more generally understood as a situation that includes contradictions or sharp contrasts, For Example: When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however, a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, a vehicle made to protect the President from gunfire instead directed gunfire to the president. The following story is ironical: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a story whose plot revolves around situational irony. Dorothy travels to a wizard and fulfills his challenging demands to go home, before discovering she had the ability to go back home all the time. The Scarecrow longs for intelligence, only to discover he is already a genius, and the Tin Woodsman longs to be capable of love, only to discover he already has a heart. The Lion, who at first appears to be a whimpering coward, turns out to be bold and fearless. The people in Emerald City believed the Wizard to be a powerful deity, only to discover that he is a bumbling, eccentric old man with no special powers at all. Q. 5. Give one example each from your own reading of literature on the literary devices: (i) Onomatopoeia Ans. An onomatopoeia is a word that phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the source of the sound that it describes. Onomatopoeias are not the same across all languages; they conform to some extent to the broader linguistic 6
system they are part of;hence the sound of a clock may be tick tock in English, or katchin katchin in Japanese, or tiktik in Hindi. (ii) Metaphor Ans. Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. For example, He is the black sheep of the family is a metaphor because he is not a sheep and is not even black. However, we can use this comparison to describe an association of a black sheep with that person. A black sheep is an unusual animal and typically stays away from the herd, and the person you are describing shares similar characteristics. (iii) Synecdoche Ans. Synecdoche is a literary device in which a part of something represents the whole or it may use a whole to represent a part. Synecdoche may also use larger groups to refer to smaller groups or vice versa. It may also call a thing by the name of the material it is made of or it may refer to a thing in a container or packing by the name of that container or packing. For example: The word bread refers to food or money as in Writing is my bread and butter or sole breadwinner. (iv) Metonymy Ans. It is a figure of Nspeech that replaces the name of a thing with the name of something else with which it is closely associated. We can come across examples of metonymy both from literature and in everyday life. For example, From Shakespeare s Julies Caesar Act I. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Mark Anthony uses ears to say that he wants the people present there to listen to him attentively. It is a metonymy because the word ears replaces the concept of attention. (v) Personification Ans. Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The nonhuman objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings. For example, when we say, The sky weeps we are giving the sky the ability to cry, which is a human quality. Thus, we can say that the sky has been personified in the given sentence. For example: Look at my car. She is a beauty, isn't it so? The wind whispered through dry grass. Q. 6. Insert a/an/the in the following blanks: Although not quite seven Kallu did... work of... grown man. He was shaken out of his sleep early in... morning and, dressed only in... old, tattered shirt in winter with Abba s old woollen cap pulled down over his ears, looking like... midget dripping at... nose, he promptly set to work. Scared off by... cold water, he was always reluctant to wash his face, and just once in... while he would carelessly rub... tips of his fingers over his teeth which remained permanently coated with... think film of mildew. Ans. the, a, the, an, a, the, the, a, the, a. Q. 7. Give the meaning of the following phrasal verb and use them in sentences of your own: (i) To burn the midnight oil Ans. (i) To burn the midnight oil to stay up working, especially studying, late at night. I have a big exam tomorrow so I ll be burning the midnight oil tonight. (ii) To pour oil on troubled waters Ans. (ii) To pour oil on troubled waters to do or say something to make people stop arguing and become calmer 7
Rohit was furious with Dave for forgetting his birthday so I tried to pour oil on troubled waters by offering to take them both out for a meal. (iii) Ahead of the game Ans. (iii) Ahead of the game being early; having an advantage in a competitive situation; having done more than necessary. Without the full cooperation of my family, I find it hard to stay ahead of the game. (iv) Make a clean sweep Ans. (iv) Make a clean sweep To do something completely or thoroughly, with no exceptions. The owner decided to change the direction of the company, so he made a clean sweep and fired all the top management. (v) On a winning streak Ans. On a winning streak It refers to a consecutive number of games won. Indian cricket team is on an winning streak. N 8