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In the exam you will write two essays from a list of four or five questions. You must write the essays during the exam period, though you are encouraged to outline or "practice" beforehand. You may not bring any prepared materials to the exam Tuesday afternoon.
The possibilities:
1) Most of our readings since the mid-term present guilt as an essential theme of modern life. Discuss the differences in the ways two male writers and two female writers treat guilt in their fiction. Consider only Twain, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Shelley, Chopin, and Hurston.
2) Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chopin, and Hurston all criticize the specific societies their works bring to life. Choose three of these authors whose social criticism seems most relevant to life today and explain why their messages still apply.
3) Politicians and pundits in the 1990s tell us that the "decline of the family" is a recent development, often tied either to women's "liberation" and the high divorce rate or the pervasive and pernicious influence of television. Use three of the authors we've read since the midterm to show these contemporary talking heads that problem families are nothing new. Which writers present family conflicts that seem the most eternally relevant?
4) Most fiction hinges structurally
upon the protagonist's "growing," or coming to a new understanding of life.
Show how two authors we've studied use this significant "growth in character"
to deliver their themes, and contrast their method with at least one writer
from our syllabus whose protagonist seems not to change or grow at all.
Why do you think the different authors chose their different methods?