Midterm
I. Multiple choices: 1% x 20 = 20%

1.      Which of the following represents an important difference between the groups known as the Pilgrims and the Puritans? (A) The Pilgrims wanted to separate from the established Church of England; the Puritans wished to purify the church from within. (B) The Pilgrims believed in the doctrine of election; the Puritans did not. (C) The Puritans settled in Virginia; the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth. (D) The Puritans recognized the sacrament of communion; the Pilgrims did not.

2.      Which of the following was NOT a genre or type of text that appeared regularly in the body of literature produced by sixteenth-century Europeans involved in the exploration of America? (A) propaganda, including lush descriptions of the new world (B) theatrical pieces representing the political maneuverings of Europeans inside colonial outposts (C) political briefs meant to inform or influence policy decisions made at a distance (D) subversive or even mutinous literature of witness

3.      The “new world” can most usefully and accurately be thought of as: (A) a radically unfamiliar land that Europeans explored with wonder and a sense of discovery (B) an uncharted geography that Europeans approached with ruthless commercial aspirations and a brutal willingness to destroy natural and human resources (C)  the homelands of a variety of Native peoples, which they attempted to defend from the incursions of European colonizers (D) a genuinely new set of social relationships characterized by initial wonder, followed by cultural borrowing, political wrangling, and resourceful exploitation, by all the peoples brought into contact with one another.

4.      What is the Puritan doctrine of election? (A) the insistence that all secular governments must be instituted democratically, through elections (B) the demand that all candidates for secular political office be established church members (C) the belief that all people, whether or not they have consciously accepted Christian salvation, will be saved by Christ (D) the belief that God had chosen, before their birth, the people he would save and the people he would damn.

5.      Which European country had the most dominant and aggressive imperial presence in the Americas before 1570? (A) England (B) Spain (C) Portugal (D) France.

6.      Which of the following best describes North American Native culture in 1492? (A)  a collection of centralized nation states sharing important linguistic and cultural commonalities and a variety of established literary forms (B) a collection of peoples who spoke hundreds of different languages belonging to entirely different linguistic families, who structured their societies in widely diverse forms and developed diverse and sophisticated oral cultures (C) a group of largely unrelated peoples with few established political structures and few forms of cultural expression (D) We have no way of knowing what North American Native cultures looked like in 1492.

7.      Immigrants to the American colonies in the eighteenth century can be characterized as: (A) a globally diverse group, consisting of large numbers of immigrants from all over Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe (B) an ethnically diverse group of Europeans, including English, Dutch, French, German, and Jewish immigrants along with an increasing number of enslaved Africans (C) dominated almost completely by English immigrants (D) There was very little immigration during the eighteenth century.

8.      The name “Great Awakening” describes: (A) a popular political movement committed to achieving independence from Great Britain (B) a reform effort focused on recognizing women’s political and social equality (C) the widespread acceptance of the theory of evolution (D) a religious revival that maintained the truth of revealed religion while emphasizing the importance of human emotion and feeling.

9.      Which of the following best describes the eighteenth-century movement known as “the Enlightenment”? (A) a belief that God orders the physical universe in a manner that is utterly incomprehensible to the human mind and that moral life depends on adherence to scripture and other signs given by God (B) the view that human beings have ruined the physical world through carelessness and sin and that moral life is doomed by the inherently fallen nature of human beings (C) conviction that the human mind could comprehend, and sometimes control, the physical universe and that human fellow-feeling and sympathy is the basis of moral life (D) the belief that the physical universe only exists insofar as it is constructed by the human mind and the view that emotional connections between human beings are necessarily psychological projections rather than actual moments of sympathy.

10.  Which of the following people is often perceived as best representing, and even embodying, the promise of the Enlightenment in America? (A) Jonathan Edwards (B) Cotton Mather (C) Thomas Paine (D) Benjamin Franklin.

11.  Which of the following people is most closely associated with the movement known as “The Great Awakening”? (A) Cotton Mather (B) Judith Sargent Murray (C) Benjamin Franklin (D) Jonathan Edwards.

12.  What is the title of the collection of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison to support the new federal constitution in 1787 and 1788? (A) Letters from an American Farmer (B) A Loyalist Manifesto(C) The Federalist Papers (D) The Power of Sympathy

13.  Which of the following best describes the situation for female American writers in the late eighteenth century? (A) Women were excluded from publishing and instead circulated their work through an informal manuscript culture in which their literary efforts were shared with other women. (B) Women published commentary on public events, as well as belles lettres in periodicals using feminine pen names, and authored some important novels in the period. (C) Women published important political pamphlets, philosophical treatises, poetry, and novels under their own names, and some supported themselves comfortably on their royalties. (D) The only known literary efforts by women in this period are domestic manuals and cookbooks.

14.  Which of the following problems have recent critics frequently raised about the construction of the so-called American Renaissance? (A) Studies of the American Renaissance have tended to exclude the significant contributions of women and minority writers. (B) The writers of the antebellum period did not attain the stylistic sophistication necessary to justify the term “renaissance.” (C) It is inappropriate to apply a term like “renaissance,” which is so often associated with British literature, to a uniquely American phenomenon. (D) Antebellum writers themselves preferred to call their movement the “Great Awakening.”

15.  Which of the following best describes the role Andrew Jackson occupied in the national mythology during the 1820s? (A) He was condemned for his disregard for Native American land rights and human rights, and he was often described as the embodiment of everything that was wrong with the nation’s drive for westward expansion. (B) He was revered for his scholarly commitment to the American Constitution and beloved for his quiet, humble demeanor. (C) He was acclaimed as a republican hero, who had risen from an obscure background through hard work and ability to become the incarnation of the democratic spirit of his age. (D) He was admired for his connections to the British monarchy and celebrated for his exquisite taste and sophisticated style.

16.  Territorial expansion to the West and the increasing accessibility of the West through the development of roads, canals, and railroads, sparked the popularity of what literary genre? (A) Native American creation stories (B) patriotic poetry (C) natural history (D) travel writing.

17.  Which of the following best describes Transcendentalism as a literary movement? (A) a unified movement of writers committed to reviving British literary traditions, particularly neoclassical poetic forms (B) a loose affiliation of writers interested in promoting American industrial growth and territorial expansion through unfettered capitalism (C) never really a formalized movement, but instead a shared belief among a group of writers in the creative powers of the individual mind and the need to question established institutions and traditions (D) never really a formalized movement, but instead a shared interest among a group of writers in reaffirming traditional Christian beliefs through careful examination of the Bible and the promotion of individual conversion stories.

18.  Which of the following best describes women’s roles in the literary marketplace during the antebellum period? (A) Women were systematically excluded from publication, and their writings circulated mainly as private letters and manuscripts exchanged between friends. (B) Women found success publishing long scholarly studies and religious tracts but were largely excluded from the vibrant magazine and newspaper culture of the period. (C) Women were very active in the antebellum literary marketplace, particularly through publication in newspapers and magazines. (D) Very few women in the period were educated or even literate, so their contributions to the literary marketplace were necessarily extremely minimal.

19.  U.S. government policies of relocation, exploitation, and oppression were systematically exterminating Native Americans during the antebellum period. Which of the following was a common belief among white Americans in the period about the plight of Native Americans? (A) Native Americans would eventually assimilate to Anglo-European culture and flourish. (B) The “vanishing” of Native American populations was a divinely ordered “extinction,” in which Native Americans were “destined” to give way to Anglo-European settlers on their land. (C) The U.S. government should honor its treaties with Native American tribes, respect Native American sovereignty, and deport white settlers who had encroached on Natives’ lands. (D) Native Americans were happy and content with their relationship with the U.S. government.

20.  Which of the following writers is usually credited with beginning the Transcendentalist movement? (A) Herman Melville (B) Ralph Waldo Emerson (C) Frederick Douglass (D) Harriet Beecher Stowe.

II. Glossary: complete the paragraphs with the words from the box. Please fill in blank with the number standing for the proper answer individually.) 1% x 20 = 20%

1. abolish                 2. amendment          3. appropriation               4. boycott                      5. eminent domain   6. executive             7. filibuster              8. gerrymandering   9. impeachment      10. judicial               11. laissez-faire               12. lame duck  13. legislature          14. liberty               15. life                     16. pursuit 17. ratification        18. red herring         19. referendum                20. veto

(A)  Sociology: Federal Government’s Checks and Balances

On September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, thirty-nine delegates to the Constitution Convention representing twelve of the thirteen states signed the Constitution, a document that they had worked diligently on for four difficult and exhausting months. During this time, there had been many disagreements leading to numerous compromises. However, all the delegates wanted to avoid a central government with unlimited powers, so they eventually decided to separate the powers of the federal government into the 1_13_, 2_6_, and 3_10_branches. To ensure that none of these branches became too powerful, they included provisions in the Constitution that allowed for checks and balances so that each branch could guard against abuse by the other branches.

In particular, the legislative branch, or Congress, can remove the president (executive) and Supreme Court members (judiciary) from office through 4__9_ if the members are convinced that the president or other high government officials have violated the Constitution. In addition, the legislature can override a President’s  5__20___ of a bill if two-thirds of its members still feel that the bill should be made into a law. Also, the Senate (Congress is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate) has the power to approve or disapprove of presidential appointments, including those to the Supreme Court. The Senate also has the power to approve or disapprove treaties that the president may negotiate. Congress is also the only branch of government that can declare war, enact taxes, and make a(n) for a 6__3___ special federal program. Congress also has the power to pass a(n) 7__2__ to the Constitution; however, throughout the more than two centuries that the Constitution has been in effect, there have been only twenty-six changes or additions to it, and ten of them, the Bill of Rights, were passed soon after the 8__17__ of the Constitution by the necessary number of states.

On the other hand, the president, as head of the executive branch, has the power to check congressional actions by vetoing bills its members have proposed, thus keeping the bills from becoming laws. In addition, it is the president who nominates candidates for judicial positions, including those of the Supreme Court and the other federal courts, when vacancies occur.

For its part, the judicial branch can declare bills passed by Congress and signed by the president into law as unconstitutional. The judiciary can also rule actions of the president as unconstitutional.

The checks and balances system has worked well throughout the nation’s history; the three branches of the federal government have usually been able to follow a(n) 9__11__ approach toward each another, knowing full well that regular interference would not only hamper the workings of the federal government but also is generally uncalled for.

However, during the heat of an election year, a member of Congress, not wanting to become a 10__12__, has been known to hurl a serious charge against the president, who may in turn label the charge as nothing more than a 11__18__ to divert attention from the congressperson’s poor legislative record. There have also been times when a president has demanded an end to a congressional 12__7__ (which Congress is within its Constitutional powers to do) so that a bill he is in favor of can be passed.

In addition to checks and balances, the framers of the Constitution took care that the rights of the various states would be protected. This recognition of state rights has allowed citizens of a state, for example, to call for a 13__19__ if they are unhappy with a law passed or another action taken by their state officials, such as the 14__8__ of voting districts so that one of the political parties has an advantage come election time. The federal government also recognizes that a state legislature has the power of 15__5__, and can take private property if it is for the public good. States also have the right to 16__4__ goods from other states if they have a legitimate reason for doing so.

The Constitution, by including a system of checks and balances and protecting the rights of the states, has served our country remarkably well through the years, as

Americans and people throughout the world recognize.

 

(B)  So far as man in his total socio-political being is concerned, the central document

of the Revolutionary Period was The Declaration of Independence. Expressing the dreams and aspirations of countless millions who struggled and are yet struggling toward the realization of human dignity and natural rights, its words are of a sort so noble as to inspire the world:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are 17__15___, 18__14__, and the 19__16__ of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to 20__1__ it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness…

 

 

III. Identification: 1% x 25 = 25% 

1.   Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could:
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot still made a flaw.
I stretched thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet;

The above lines, cited from (1) “_The Author to Her Book__” (title)

2.     by (2) _ Anne Bradstreet __ (author), provides a sampling of the verse that was produced by an educated woman in the Colonial America. The author wrote for self-expression and personal fulfillment in a context that offered herself little in the way of cultural companionship.

3. Here the word “feet” is a pun standing the meanings of her child’s (1) __ leg ___ (body part) and

4. (2) __ metrical feet of her poetry ___ of her poetry.

5.   Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Identify (1) the title “A Psalm of Life “

6. and (2) the author of the above quatrain. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

7. The metaphor of “sands” means beach at the first place as well as the __ hour glass

___ that counts the timing.

8. His mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village which he had left but the day before. There stood the Kaatskill mountains--there ran the silver Hudson at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always ken--Rip was sorely perplexed—‘That flagon last night,’ thought he, ‘has addled my poor head sadly!     

This passage cited from (1) “_ Rip Van Winkle _” (title) by

9. _ Washington Irving ____ (author) that touches on the theme of imagination versus reality. The persona cannot trust his senses or his memory and cannot figure out why nothing is quite right. He thinks he may be having some kind of dream or that he is still drunk from whatever it was he was given to drink. It is not so much that he would be drunk but that, following the traditional idea of witches in the woods, he has been bewitched.

10. "His historical researches, however, did not lie so much among books as among men; for the former are lamentably scanty on his favorite topics; whereas he found the old burghers, and still more their wives, rich in that legendary lore, so invaluable to true history. Whenever, therefore, he happened upon a genuine _ Dutch ____ family, snugly shut up in its low-roofed farmhouse, under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a little clasped volume of black-letter,' and studied it with the zeal of a book-worm."

Knickerbocker's historian writes at one remove from Knickerbocker himself, relying on Knickerbocker's words and investigations. Knickerbocker himself, however, was a different kind of historian altogether, preferring to go to the original sources of stories to hear them for himself. He passed by the books when he had a chance to talk to the actual people, and he was willing to travel to verify the stories that he heard.

The _____, being the elder Europeans in the region and more apt to have stories and to believe the stranger ones, particularly attracted Knickerbocker. If America was to develop a social and cultural history, there was no better place to look than the homes of the old _____ burghers.

11. "Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his wife, was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and share the contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. 'Poor _Wolf_,' he would say, 'thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it; but never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never want a friend to stand by thee!'"

This passage reflects some common complaints of husbands and wives: the men complain that their wives henpeck them and that they need an escape from the domestic troubles that are aggravated by their wives' nagging and unnecessary clamor, while the women complain that their husbands do not pay enough attention to their domestic duties. There is a lesson for both in "Rip Van Winkle": the woman who drives away her husband may not see him come back, and the man who takes his temporary escape might end up unable to truly return home. Granted, Dame Van Winkle is painted as uncommonly terrible, but many a man would welcome the chance to avoid 20 years of nagging and heckling. Yet, would they really want to miss out on everything else in life as well? For his part, Rip is uncommonly indolent, for when he escapes to the woods he is not only escaping his wife but also his work. This gives his wife more than the usual reason to be upset with her husband.

Rip's promises to _____, his loyal dog, ironically turn out to be false. Rip was not able to stand by his fellow-sufferer because he slept through the remainder of the dog's life; Wolf simply returned home to Dame Van Winkle despite her frequent mistreatment of the dog as well.

12. Traveling is a fool's paradise. Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places.

In _ Ralph Waldo Emerson __’s (author) influential essay

13. “_ Self-Reliance _ (title),” which Thoreau’s Walden project could be said to put into practice, he makes the assertion that  it is far more useful to change one’s soul than to change one’s landscape. The fool who thinks that his life will change on a trip to Europe is shocked and disappointed to discover, after unpacking his suitcase on arrival, that he is still in the same tedious company of himself.

14. Our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life, cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests. Events, actions arise, that must be sung, that will sing themselves. Who can doubt that poetry will revive and lead in a new age, as the star in the constellation Harp which now flames in our zenith, astronomers announce, shall one day be the pole-star for a thousand years.

The above citation is quoted from Emerson’s “_ The American Scholar ____,” which is often referred to as the nation’s “declaration of cultural independence.” The essay helped inspire many authors who have come to associated with both traditional and more multicultural notions of an American Renaissance.

15. Over me soared the eternal sky,
Full of light and of deity;
Again I saw, again I heard,
The rolling river, the morning bird;--
Beauty through my senses stole;
I yielded myself to the prefect whole.

Identify the title of the above passage by Emerson. This is one of his poems that could possibly demonstrate some of his beliefs on transcendentalism, such as the intuitions could transcend sense knowledge for the reason that intuitions arise from a higher faculty within man because of which he can know ultimate truth “Each and All”

16. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived…I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one. It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves.

Identify the title of the above passage Walden

17. and the name of the speaker. Henry David Thoreau

18. “Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!”
“Nor ever will, my child, I hope,” said the mother.
“And why not, mother?” asked Pearl, stopping short. . . . “Will it not come of its own accord, when I am a woman grown?” Nathaniel Hawthorne

This quote, taken from Chapter 16 “A Forest Walk” of The Scarlet Letter by _____ (author), is illustrative of the role Pearl plays in the text. It is also a meditation on the significance of the scarlet letter as a symbol and an exposition of the connection between sin and humanness—one of the novel’s most important themes. Pearl is frequently aware of things that others do not see, and here she presciently identifies the scarlet letter on her mother’s bosom with the metaphorical (and in this case also literal) lack of sunshine in her mother’s life.

19. The letter on her mother’s bosom is _ A ___ (which letter)

20. that represents __ adultery ___ (the sin her mother committed).

21. Mother,” said [Pearl], “was that the same minister that kissed me by the brook?”
“Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!” whispered her mother. “We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.”

This conversation, which is described in Chapter 22, takes place a few days after Pearl and her mother’s encounter with __ Arthur Dimmsdale ___ (the minister) in the forest. It emphasizes the importance of physical settings in the novel and evokes the motif of civilization versus the wilderness. What is possible in the woods—

22. a place of fantasy, possibility, and __ freedom ___—is not an option in the heart of the Puritan town, where order, prescription, and harsh punishment reign.

23. "Why, yes, Sir," replied Robin, rather dryly. "Thanks to you, and to my other friends, I have at last met my kinsman, and he will scarce desire to see my face again. I begin to grow weary of a town life, Sir. Will you be kind enough to show me the way to the ferry??"

"No, my good friend Robin, not to-night, at least," said the gentleman. "Some few days hence, if you continue to wish it, I will speed you on your journey. Or, if you prefer to remain with us, perhaps, as you are a shrewd youth, you may rise in the world, without the help of your kinsman, Major Molineux."

The ferry here might connote the  Charon     image, the ferryman of the River Styx.

24. The journey with no return for Robin might signify    initiation   , a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could stand for a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is “reborn” into a new role.

25. Listen, my children, and you shall hear / Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, / On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: / Hardly a man is now alive / Who remembers that famous day and year. / He said to his friend, "If the British march / By land or sea from the town to-night, / Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch / Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light…

"_ Paul Revere’s Ride ___" (title) is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that commemorates the actions of American patriot Paul Revere on April 18, 1775, although with significant inaccuracies. It was first published in the January 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly.

IV. Term explanation: 4% x 5 = 20%
1.American Renaissance
2.Transcendentalism
3.American Dream
4.Manifest Destiny
5.“Inferiority Complex” (in American Literature, p. 167)

V.  Essay: 5% x 3 = 15%
1.American romanticism begins with Rip Van Winkle. How does a short story that is based on borrowed ideas come to be one of the most widely read and loved pieces of American literature?
2.Thoreau makes it very clear at the opening of Walden that his stay in the wilderness was not a lifestyle choice but rather a temporary experiment, and that “At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again.” Does the short duration of Thoreau’s stay at Walden undercut the importance of his project?
3.Discuss the themes we constantly find in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s works. (p. 170)

1. Washington Ivring conveyed characteristics of Romanticism form Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle is identified as counterhero, anti- Franklin and subsequent generation. He doesn't rise where he began. He doesn't work hard for himself and support his family as well that makes his wife tough and strong. He just like to have friend and chat. He even can make worse than better. After he sleeps for 20 years, he is such an age that his idleness can be excusable and allowed. He makes success of failure. This makes him an antithesis to American Dream. When he wakes up, the density has changed as well that respond profoundly to Ivring's pervasive theme of mutability.

2. No. Thoreau's Walden project is not a life decision, commitment and a set of ideal, but an experiment to alternative living. It's more like a casual plan than solemn ideology. When he leaves Walden Pond in 1847, he doesn't admit, the failure. He simply said he has other lives to live. Thoreau is more Emersonian transendentalist than socialist; the soul is more important o him than sociology. He is not interested in being model farmer show how the soul benefit from a change of scenery or job. He learned what Walden Pond teaches him. He leaves and turns to other scenes and occupations, thus proving than undercutting his philosophy life.

3. We can find these themes in Nathaniel Hawthorne: the relation between good and evil- between sanctity and paganism, the embrace between life in death and death in life, inherited in guilt and traditional curse, an ravage of moral decay, the impermanence of beauty in the dark and the aliena world. In The Scarlet Letter, it was the gentle rebel Puritan sex-inhibition, but its real impact is what it suggests of guilt and moral corrosion. The House of Seven Grables "built up" the structure of family sin and decay.

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