Mihir J Patel Student ID: 200448420

ENG 100-071 Mid-Term Exam

Section 1 – Short Answer

1. Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”

Understanding “Bartleby, the Scrivener” from the perspective of being published in 19th century

is quite difficult. As speaking from the author’s perspective, the passive resistance behavior of

Bartleby is quite fair. Infact the text describes that doing any positive work for their institution

will never benefit them and also the fear of being at the edge of being replaced, Bartleby’s

behavior is fully sustainable.

2. George Watsky’s How to ruin Everything, “Tusk”

The essay “Tusk” lay around the road trip of Watsky and his friend Jackson, smuggling

Narwhal tusk. The essay focuses on many themes and one of the themes are finding purpose in

life/career, Watsky having in-between moment in life, struggling to find a job decides to take a

risk smuggling a Narwhal tusk for aunt June in order to make some money to help them in

starting their Carrer. This ends up in a several life lesson for Watsky but still he thinks the trip is

all worth it when he finds the joy and jubilation found on aunt June’s face.

3. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”

The Story of an Hour plays both the role of fantasy and reality for Mrs. Mallard as she

experienced both of them. From the news of her husband's death, she first experienced the

fantasy of freedom and live a free life without anyone's demand to fulfil and live her dream,
suddenly crushed when seeing her husband. Chopin does a fine job describing the cause of death

to be joy rather than the shock which means really can often be disappointing.

4. Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party”

The Garden Party is a great story which describe a character such as Laura who is

privileged and unaware of the outside world. Mansfield does an incredible job picking up this

character to the difference in upper and lower class is when Mr. Scott died, she realized the great

differences between them as the reaction, the respect and the sympathy they show to the one who

is dead. At the funeral she is ultimately sympathetic to the group people like Scott family as she

cries and sob as she could explain what life really is.

5. George Watsky’s How to ruin Everything, “Crying & Baseball”

Watsky’s dad Paul and his friend Saul are sort of a baseball and commonly related friends,

having love for baseball and the Giants. Watsky develops passion in baseball seeing his dad and

Paul, this affected him greatly as from then they used to go to watch baseball where his father

kept the score and he does some shit talk as per the essay. Still when Watsky doesn’t live with

his dad, but if he is in town Watsky and his dad knows where they are going.
 Section 2 – Passage Analysis

1. Flannery O’Conner “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

A criminal escaped from the prison also know Misfit meets Bailey and his grandmother along

with two children and their mother. They Recently had an accident, this made them scared and

also shocked until they meet Misfit, where and their panic-stricken. The theme here horrible, the

grandmother bagging and trying convince the man to not commit any terrible crime which none

of this family member wanted. Still, there’s a bad incident here as the house the grandmother

was describing was in Tennessee and not in Georgia and this inevitably led them to this human-

monster. The author makes a point where the tiny mistake can be resulted in a horrible scenario.

However, knowing the fact that Misfit is an awful criminal, the grandmother tries to

make him understand in what he’s doing in order to protect her family. This scene is really hard

to imaging and probably worst for the grandmother as she is the why they are facing this

situation. As from the point of the grandmother and her son Bailey this must be the most nerve-

wracking thing they ever faced, their only current objective is to escape and survive despite the

fact the car is nonfunctional.

2. George Watsky’s How to ruin Everything, “Crying & Baseball”

“The championships didn’t matter. Baseball doesn’t matter. And yet, it does. Because we

agreed it does together. Watsky tries to explain as the game is just a way to be connect to his

father and also a reminder of his childhood for his love for baseball. An emotional bond of his

fatherhood and as a memorial of his father’s friend Saul, Baseball existed for Watsky. Watsky

describes that he doesn’t meet his parents often but if he’s in town over the summer he and his

dad eventually go to catch a game this shows the bond between them and how connected they
are while being apart most of the time. And like always his dad gets a polish sausage and keeps

score and he will take shit is like a family tradition build from the childhood.

3. Cynthia Ozick “The Shawl”

The Shawl is a really sad and tragic story laying around the theme of survival. This story has

three main characters Rosa, Stella and Magda. Magda is a baby feeding on Rosa as they and

Stella walking in snowing weather in a holocaust situation. It’s a dreadful story on how Rosa not

the mother of Magda still sentiment for her and Stella who is desperate to survive having a

negative thought for Magda. But still fortunately enough when Rosa ran out of milk the magic

shawl could provide nourishment to an infant for three days and three nights. The reason for the

magic shawl providing nourishment is unclear, but this still provide a relief for the child. Seeing

Magda in two different perspective is stated in this story, through the eyes of Rosa wanting to

sacrifice everything to save Magda and through the eyes of Stella who wanted to devour her for

her greater good and survival.

4. George Watsky’s How to ruin Everything, “Tusk”

At aunt June party celebrating her hundredth birthday, Watsky and his friend Jackson

who had surprised her with the Narwhal tusk that she used to own in Vancouver and now she

lived in Denver where she could not take her Tusk because it’s illegal to traffic it across US

border. This essay indicated the joy and jubilation which is found in aunt June expression when

she saw the tusk while also giving priority to Watsky life on how he is having a hard time

finding a purpose in his life. Despite the fact that they were hiding from aunt June about him

being in jail, June was showing her love and caring to her dearest friends. The joy and love found
in this essay is quite pleasant and the risk taken resulting in consequences is all worth it for the

joy and jubilation of aunt June.

 Section 3 – Essay Questions

1. Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”

Mihir J Patel

Matthew Wincherauk

ENG 100-071

31 July 2021

The authority of the reader and the authority of the author both have a major role in adapting the

story of Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”. From the reader’s perspective which will

tend to be more recently of 21th century majoring around mental health. But as from the date of

publication the passive resistance behavior of the main character Bartleby is focused, due to lack

of the knowledge on mental health. Hence, the authority of the author is more valuable as he

specifically tends to illustrate the theme materialism and passive resistance of the protagonist.

As from the reader point of view, the story mainly describes the mental illness and lack

of awareness that Bartleby is facing according to the current generation of 21th century. And from

the author perspective the theme of passive resistance becomes more dominant. Considering the

date of publication in 19th century the author perspective becomes more relevant as mental health

and other fancy words weren’t a thing up until recently and according to the author the author is

mostly de-motivated and his lack of desire to do anything or having a positive behavior is more

likely as from his text “I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound

conviction that the easiest way of the life is the best.” (Melville). This factor comes into play

while going back to author and discussing the current status of Bartleby.
 Although taking out the date of publication, the author still has to develop a character and

for Bartleby, his character is the most forward described by the author. But still the reader will

inspect the date of publication and have a mindset as what the expectation of the author must be

regards to his writing. Keeping in mind the author expectation is really a good way to be closely

connected to the author and have a decent understanding between them. So, taking out the author

theme because the time has passed out isn’t very wisely.

Overall, the theme is quite possibly most to argue about and how author perspective can

be more important due to the date of publication and the story from their time will have a

different meaning to the current reader of the current generation. The fact that the author has a

specific theme to describe this character will have a substantial impact on the reader. Hence,

examine the published date will have a great impact on the story.
 Work Cited

Chopin, Cate. The Story of an Hour. Vogue, 1894.

Mansfield, Katherine. The Garden Party. Constable and Co., 1922.

Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener. Putnam’s Magazine, 1853.

O’Conner, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. Avon, 1955.

Ozick, Cynthia. The Shawl. Vintage, 1980.

Watsky, George. How to Ruin Everything: Essays. Plume, 2016.