Answer ANY TEN (10) of the following 13 questions and LABEL answers clearly. You may answer extra questions for extra credit!:
1. Explain the last three lines of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
2. In “Disillusionment at Ten O’Clock,” what contrast does Stevens draw between the people who live in the house and the old sailor?
3. In Williams’s “The Young Housewife,” why does the speaker compare the housewife to “a fallen leaf”?
4. What does the simian imagery suggest about Yank in The Hairy Ape?
5. Describe Mildred in The Hairy Ape. Why does she faint in the forecastle?
6. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” what does the speaker mean when he says, “I have known rivers”?
7. a. Discuss the significance of the title “Babylon Revisited.”
b. How do Lorraine and Duncan represent “ghosts out of the past?” Does their “haunting” have larger thematic
8. a. Identify Sarty’s dilemma in “Barn Burning.” What happens that forces him to resolve the dilemma?
b. What is the significance of fire to Abner Snopes?
9. Why is Nick so attentive to detail in “Big Two-Hearted River”?
10. Describe Ellen Wetherall in “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” What was the turning point in her life? How
did she change, physically and psycholologically, as a result?
11. Consider “The Swimmer” as a satire. What is Cheever ridiculing?
12. How does the fixed form of the sestina reinforce the central theme and dominant tone of Bishop’s “Sestina”?
13. Describe the speaker in “Skunk Hour.”