AKL3036 Survey of American Literature Part 2 MIDTERM Time: 12:00-14:00 Date: 22 March 2021

© Lecturers: Assoc. Prof. Irena Ragaišienė; Prof. Ingrida Eglė Žindžiuvienė

NAME: Aistė Sadauskaitė Score: ________/30 points (15+15)

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15 points: SECTION 1 (IR)

on the literary work of Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, and Theodore Dreiser.

1. In the excerpt from Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, what does the phrase the “new people”
refer to? Who are the “old people”? What is the relationship between the two groups (“new
people” and the old ones? Explain. (2 points)

New people are rich, powerful people from American upper-class society (wealthy), the old people are
poor ones. The rich belittled the poor people, there was no respect.

On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy
of Music in New York. Though there was already talk of the erection, in remote metropolitan distances ...
of a new Opera House which should compete in costliness and splendor with those of the great European
capitals, the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold
boxes of the sociable old Academy. Conservatives cherished it for being small and inconvenient, and thus
keeping out the "new people" whom New York was beginning to dread and yet be drawn to; and the
sentimental clung to it for its historic associations, and the musical for its excellent acoustics, always so
problematic a quality in halls built for the hearing of music.

2. Identify at least one feature of social realism in the following excerpt from Edith Wharton’s The
Age of Innocence. Explain. (3 points)

1. Not all representatives (only the upper class) had such a privilege, shows social class inequality.

It was Madame Nilsson's first appearance that winter, and what the daily press had already learned to
describe as "an exceptionally brilliant audience" had gathered to hear her, transported through the
slippery, snowy streets in private (1) broughams /bruːəm/, in the spacious family landau (2) /ˈlændɔ/, or
in the humbler but more convenient (3) "Brown coupe.„ /kuːp/ To come to the Opera in a Brown coupe
was almost as honourable a way of arriving as in one's own carriage 1; and departure by the same means
had the immense advantage of enabling one (with a playful allusion to democratic principles) to scramble
into the first Brown conveyance in the line, instead of waiting till the cold-and-gin congested nose of
one's own coachman gleamed under the portico of the Academy. It was one of the great livery-
stableman's most masterly intuitions to have discovered that Americans want to get away from
amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.
 3. Circle the best answer: Anzia Yezierska’s “The Lost ‘Beautifulness’” implies that American society is
(a) aristocratic / (b) meritocratic / (c) idiosyncratic, but the contribution of immigrants is often ignored. (1
point)

4. Anzia Yezierska’s “The Lost ‘Beautifulness’” is known to be a story about ‘Americanization’ of the
female protagonist. What about Jewish language / culture? Are they part of the story? Yes / No.
Explain. ( 3 points)

Well, the main character is Jewish woman, and there was stereotypes about immigrants, they were naive
and the problem is that Americans do not recognize immigrants as equal to themselves, especially it is
about the struggles of female Jewish immigrants.

5. Finish the sentence: The journalists and fiction writers who wrote about social evils at the turn of the
century are called ___social realists__________________. (1 point)

6. What features of Naturalism does Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie exemplify? Name at least one
feature and provide examples/explanation with reference to the story. ( 2 points)

The women are weaker than men, they want men and pleasure, and men, seek for material gains and also,
sex. In the first chapter, Carrie’s outfit was described as appropriate as her status, she is young woman,
which gets easily attracted to a man, and that man, of course, wears good clothes and has attitude.

7. How did industrialization change the role of the family and relationships within the family?
Explain with reference to Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie. ( 3 points)

Carrie leaves her home with her sister, but not long time after, she goes to live with a man she just met.
An earning power came across her relationship between family members, she forgot them. And also, she
had an affair, so she had problems with both families.

15 points: SECTION 2 (IŽ) on Jack London, Gertrude Stein, Modernism and Ernest Hemingway

1. What Jack London’s adventure was the most important to his writing career? (0.5 point)
He sailed with his sister’s husband to join the Klondike Gold Rush.

2. From what 19th-century scientific theory had Jack London absorbed the idea that to survive, the
man must adapt to irresistible natural forces? (0.5 point)

Aesthetic theory

3. Comment on a literary trend/s in this paragraph (2 point):

He did not complain. It was the way of life, and it was just. He had been born close to the earth, close to
the earth had he lived, and the law thereof was not new to him. It was the law of all flesh. Nature was not
kindly to the flesh. She had no concern for that concrete thing called the individual. Her interest lay in the
species, the race. This was the deepest abstraction old Koskoosh's barbaric mind was capable of, but he
grasped it firmly. He saw it exemplified in all life. The rise of the sap, the bursting greenness of the
willow bud, the fall of the yellow leaf -- in this alone was told the whole history. But one task did Nature
set the individual. Did he not perform it, he died. Did he perform it, it was all the same, he died. Nature
did not care; there were plenty who were obedient, and it was only the obedience in this matter, not the
obedient, which lived and lived always.

Relationship with nature. Questions about life and dead.

 4. What theme is the main one in Jack London’s short story “The Law of Life”? (0.5 point)
Death.

5. In Jack London’s short story “The Law of Life” the measure of the old chief’s last minutes of life
became (0.5 point; LEAVE the correct one and delete the other two)

c) wild animals who came near him

6. Comment on Hemingway’s style in the following paragraph: (3 points)

Character’s contact with nature (walking up-hill). Inner thoughts (his emotions). The character is lonely
and suffers alone.
Nick walked back up the ties to where his pack lay in the cinders beside the railway track. He was happy.
He adjusted the pack harness around the bundle, pulling straps tight, slung the pack on his back got his
arms through the shoulder straps and took some of the pull off his shoulders by leaning his forehead
against the wide band of the tump-line. Still, it was too heavy. It was much too heavy. He had his leather
rod-case in his hand and leaning forward to keep the weight of the pack high on his shoulders he walked
along the road that paralleled the railway track, leaving the burned town behind in the heat, and shell
turned off around a hill with a high, fire-scarred hill on either side onto a road that went back into the
country. He walked along the road feeling, the ache from the pull of the heavy pack. The road climbed
steadily. It was hard work walking up-hill. His muscles ached and the day was hot, but Nick felt happy.
He felt he had left everything behind, the need for thinking, the need to write, other needs. It was all back
of him.

7. The term “THE LOST GENERATION” is applied to writers who (0.5 point; LEAVE the correct
one and delete the other two)

c) were disappointed in moral ideas

8. Hemingway participated in (0.5 point; LEAVE the correct one and delete the other two)

c) three wars

9. What is the main theme in Hemingway’s short story “Big Two-Hearted River”? (0.5 point)
Getting healthier physically and emotionally after war. Nature is like therapy.

10. Ernest Hemingway is NOT a true representative of the Lost Generation. Why? (0.5 point)
Because in Hemingway’s works death is never heroic.

11. Name TWO symbols that may stand for the description of the inner state of the main character:
one – for the state at the beginning and the second for the state at the end of EH’s short story”)? (2 p.)

 The black grasshoppers, burned surroundings, city

 fishing, battle with fish, the river (hope, life)

12. Name and describe the types of Steinian repetition. (1 point)

Melanchata

13. Comment on Gertrude Stein’s style in the following paragraph: (3 points)

A LONG DRESS
What is the current that makes machinery, that makes it crackle, what is the current that presents a long
line and a necessary waist. What is the current.
What is the wind, what is it.
Where is the serene length, it is there and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are
black, only a yellow and green are blue, a pink is scarlet, a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it. A
line just distinguishes it.
Repetition, questions without question marks, allows interpretations.