Literature

Yijie Wang

06/12/16

Midterm Assessment

I. Define the following terms and, where indicated (ex) give an example of each from our readings (5 points each).

1. Allegory (Young Goodman Brown)-  a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. (google dictionary) so allegory is a way that author use to hide a meaning in their paper to warring or satirize people about a moral or social value.

2. Literary criticism (Young Goodman Brown)- the art or practice of judging and commenting on the qualities and character of literary works. (google dictionary) so it is the way author use to critiqued literature from a variety of perspectives. It includes many different types, such as Sociological criticism, Gender criticism and Reader-response criticism.

3. Dénouement (mention two main types)- it is the ending of the story, final outcome. There are two different kind ending, the first one is very common, we can find in many novels and films, it is an actually ending. The other one is an open ending, and author try to leave a question to us.

4. Epiphany (A Good Man Is Hard to Find)-  a moment of sudden revelation or insight. (google dictionary) so it is a new finding or breakthrough that author try to show us, and it maybe is feeling of a moral or social value. For example, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the old lady finally gets an Epiphany when the man killed all her family.

5. Gothic mode (the yellow wallpaper)- As a literary mode, the Gothic relies on a series of devices that are intended to evoke specific feelings, namely horror and terror. (The Gothic as a Literary Mode) author try to create a horror atmosphere to highlight the main idea author try to let us know.

6. Point of view (be sure to delineate the different main types)- point of view is the mode of the main character that author try to let the us know what is happening in a story, and author can tell a story from different perspective. There are three main types, first person (I, We), second person (you) and third person (He, She, It).

II. Answer the following questions in a good paragraph. (15 points each)

1. Most people think although there are some bad people, there are more good man in the world.  However, O’Connor has a different view, he thinks a good man is very rare. By a direct way to tell people, most of them won’t agree with him. So he tries to let more people agree with his idea, and he uses an epiphany way. In the story- a good man is hard to find, the old lady has the same view like most people- there are a lot of good man in the world. By a list of events, her family and she died by a criminal because of her selfish and vanity. The last minute before she died, she become a good man. Author try to tell us how rare of a good man. By a surprisingly ending, he let audience think more carefully about what is a good man and their value.

1. In the story- "young Goodman brown", brown’s companion, "his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake”, and in the bible, snack is always means devil.  Like his name brown, it is close to the dark, so in the story, he tries to go with devil. Then when he actually faces to the dark, he tries to come back. "the depth of the gloom at that particular spot " it shows he goes to a dark path with evil.

1. In the story- the story of an hour, author uses a lot of irony in it. For example, ‘free! Body and soul free!’ she kept whispering.” After the lady heard his husband died, she was so happy to get free and didn’t feel any sad. “when the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease-of joy that kills.” When she thinks she finally get free from her husband, and died because of too excited. Her husband comes back. Moreover, she looked outside the window, everything is gray, however, she felt “blue sky “and “breath of spring”.

1. In the story, author uses a lot of humor in it. For example, Fortunato’s dress as a court jester, and it is a kind of humor to show the foolish of him. Meanwhile, Montresor shows him a trowel when Fortunato asks him for a sign to show he is a free masons of the brotherhood. The trowel is a bricklaying mason's primary tool, and I think this is a black humor. When Fortunato begs to go on, he tells Montresor that "I shall not die of a cough." "true--true!" Montresor knowingly replies. I think it is also a little bit humor because he actually not dies of a cough, and Montresor knows what he dies for.

1. In packer’s “brownies”, the author tells a story about racism from a new different perspective. I think author try to tell we shouldn’t love or hate someone because of his race, and it is stupid to hate someone because other people think. " suddenly knew there was something mean in the world that I could not stop." from this sentence author show the foolishness of black/white stereotypes.

1.  in Gilman’s “the yellow wallpaper, narrator’s husband takes her to a house which has a beautiful surroundings. He also gives her tonics and medicines to help with her recovery. Moreover, he makes her stop writing, make sure she gets plenty of rest so that she doesn’t have chance to use her creativity. Locked her a small room. At the end, she become really crazy, she climbs on the floor, and think talk with another woman. Maybe it is the way she uses to release her emotion instead of writing.

1. Biographical is a way author use to describe an experience of a person, and we can get some from reading. For example, the yellow wallpaper, author shows an experience of a lady, and try to tell us woman should also get the same power like man. Historical criticism that author use his experience to tell us about something. For example, in O’Brien’s “the things they carried”, he tries to tell us how cold the war is basic on his own experience. The war destruct soldiers’ dreams, and makes them become the robot of war.  

1. In carver’s “cathedral”, at the beginning, he doesn’t like the blind people because he only knows them from TV. Meanwhile, before he met this blind man, he thinks his wife may love him, so he doesn’t like think man.  Then, he thinks they are just friend, and by a list of communicating, such as watching TV together and drawing the cathedral, he starts to accept them, and think he is a good guy.

1. In O’Brien’s “the things they carried”, they carried some things are tangible, such as pocket knife, heat tabs picture and letters.  However, they also carried more things which are intangible. For example, their dream, the bible they take is not just a bible, it is their faith. The letters show the girl is the dream for jimmy, it is his dream- survive from the war and go to marry with that girl.

1. In Erich’s “The red convertible”, native American lives in a poor and oppression situation. White government promised a lot to them, but the things never come true. At the beginning of the story, his dream is go in to the while culture and become rich, them after his brother came back from the war, he let the car roll into the river because he gives up this dream. In Alexie’s “the lone ranger and tonto”, native American also get a lot contempt because they don’t “fit the profile of the country”, but author believe by commutation between different race it can be change.  

III. In 1-2 healthy paragraphs, analyze “Popular Mechanics” (see pdf).

I think the title is show a male blue color world, popular means this story is common, and happened really often in the world. Mechanics, I think author try to say balance which is a common rule in Earth. The babe as an impotent balance point in the story between his cold father and mother.  in this story, the man is cold, and he may not love the woman anymore, but he still said, “I’m not hurting the baby”. (Raymond, 1989)