US Literature 2008 Take-home Make-up Exam Answer the following questions: 1.

Can you name two elements Joyce Carol Oates The Turn of the Screw takes from Jamess homonymous novella and compare how those elements function in each work? One of several elements in common between these pieces is the presence of haunting. Ghosts and hauntedness appear in both, Jamess novella and Oates short story. In Jamess, the character of the governess is haunted by the apparitions of her predecessor, Miss Jessel and a former employee at the house Peter Quint, who had had a love affair with the latter. In the modern version, the character of the young American feels watched and finally haunted by the anonymous letters he receives. After having opened the fourth one, he strolls on the beach thinking: A voice has spoken. I know there are ghosts. I understand them. I feel them in this medieval town, on all sides of me, harsh and innocent with their cold piercing eyes and their victories. The specters in James have been exchanged for anonymous letters in Oates. Another element present in both texts is the peculiar parallel of the names, since Peter Quints initials are repeated in those of Patrick Qwarles, who, in addition, attaches II to his name. The two PQs do not only share initials, but also some parallel characteristics: Quint wears his masters clothes perhaps trying to trespass the boundaries of social class or get power filling somebody elses place or position of authority, whereas Qwarles wears somebody elses clothes, which makes him a slave to his own doubts and makes him feel the burden of the past. 2. Both Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Edward Albee portray the society of their times. Do they share any thematic concerns? If so, please comment on one of them. These both texts deal with the theme of the decline of the American Dream, portraying the decadence of the American society corrupted with the unrestrained materialism and the lack of morality which have been replacing the means of achieving the American Dream. In Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby, the character Jay Gatsbys idea of attaining the American Dream is through illegal money that was not acquired by hard, honest work. What he reaches may seem like the real American Dream to outsiders, but actually he is as miserable as before he acquired his fortune. Gatsby gets his fortune through the illegal sale of alcohol and bootlegging during the Prohibition era of the 1920s. His dream is doomed because he tries to buy his way into a society that will never accept him. In Albees The American Dream, the author points out the emasculation of society, there is a loss of value and strength as a country and an existential vacuum which money cannot fill. There is a feeling of senselessness of the human condition after terrible events like the two World Wars influenced by Existentialism and the Theater of the Absurd; there is also an open abandonment of rational devices and discoursive thought. Values have been exchanged so the American Dream is no longer seen as the character of Grandma would see it, from rags to riches.

Francisco Javier Dufour

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3. Both Emily Grierson and Roderick Usher are the last representatives of their respective families. Is this feature significant? Does it suggest the same in both texts? In both texts this feature is significant, nontheless differently in each. A Rose for Emily is told from the viewpoint of the town, where the Grierson family was the closest thing to true aristocracy. Emily Grierson is the last representative of her family line, she symbolizes the rich past of her family and of the community. To the outside world, it might have seemed that Miss Emily Grierson grew up in the lap of luxury, however it was a lonely existence, for her father ruled Emilys life with an iron fist. In The Fall of the House of Usher, Roderick Usher is also the last survinving male of the Usher family together with his sister Madeline, but this has another connotation, bescause some have speculated that he is agonizing over the Usher family secret of incest. The twin imagery and the incestuous history of the Usher line establish that Roderick is actually inseparable from his sister. This interdependence causes a chain reaction when one of the elements suffers a breakdown. Madeline's physical death coincides with the collapse of both Roderick's sanity and the Ushers' mansion. 4. Both Nathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown and Arthur Millers The Crucible deal with the theme of evil. Are there differences in the treatment of the theme? In Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the tale of a man and his discovery of evil. Hawthornes primary concern is with evil and how it affects Young Goodman Brown. Through the use of tone and setting, Hawthorne portrays the nature of evil and the psychological effects it can have on man. He shows how discovering the existence of evil brings Brown to view the world in a cynical way. Brown learns the nature of evil and, therefore, feels surrounded by its presence constantly. In The Crucible the notion of evil is central to it. To understand the play without thinking about what Miller is trying to say on the subject is not possible. It is obvious that we are looking at wickedness as it is after all, the story of a witch-trial, and involves a good deal of both physical and spiritual cruelty. What is not so obvious is that the playwright is setting up two different models of evil. He shows us what people take it to be, and then demonstrates that they have got it largely wrong. They are looking in the wrong place, chasing the wrong symptoms, prosecuting the supposedly wicked and leaving the genuinely bad untouched. 5. What does Africa add to The Color Purple? The mentioning of Africa in The Color Purple and the letters sent by Celies sister makes her get closer to her roots in Africa. Walker might be highlighting significant issues relating to the importance of Africa in black American history and culture. In The Color Purple, Walker focuses on the theme of double repression of black women in the American experience. Walker argues that black women suffer from discrimination by the white community and from a second repression from black males, who impose the double standard of white society on women. It seems the civil rights movement helped shape Walker's thinking regarding racial issues at home and it also shaped her interest in Africa. During the 1960s, a strong interest in ethnic and racial identity stimulated many African Americans to look for their roots in Africa. Africa symbolizes the roots of the identity African-Americans were looking for during the 1960s, and Walker portrays it through the letters, which make Celie realize that African people is also dominated.
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