SPECIAL POST-MIDTERM REVIEW

Each section of your exam will be timed.

 

You will have one multiple choice prompt (prose not poetry).  (probably 11 - 12 questions) (12 minutes)

 

You will have a short matching section over details from Beowulf.  (Think:  numbers, names, weapons, kennings) (10 -15 minutes)

You will need to write at least one of your 40 minute essays over Cry, the Beloved Country.  You may select another novel/play for the second essay.

 1.  The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings:

“The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events—a marriage or a last-minute rescue from death—but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death.”

Choose a novel or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In a well written essay, identify the “spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation” evident in the ending and explain its significance in the work as a whole. You may select a work from the list below or another novel or play of literary merit.

 

2.  Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure)

and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict
and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work.  Avoid plot summary.