For the midterm, you will be writing an in-class essay (you will have 50 minutes to complete the assignment). It is open book and open note and the prompts are based upon the reading we have done thus far in the second semester. The following is a list of eight (8) possible prompts. On the day of the midterm you will see three (3) prompts taken from this list of eight (8) that you may choose from. You will write an essay on one (1) of the three (3) prompts, as has been explained to you in class. Good luck!
Possible Midterm Essay Prompts:
1. Ever since Eliot's "Love Song" was published in 1915, J. Alfred Prufrock has fascinated readers. For some, Prufrock is merely a man who fails to achieve his dreams. For others, Prufrock embodies larger failings of the modern age--an absence of heroism, or a general weariness. Write an essay analyzing Prufrock's character, and make your own judgment about this famous literary creation.
2. Fitzgerald portrays Dexter Green as a fully rounded character with believable thoughts, feelings, strengths, and weaknesses. Explore Dexter's behavior and motivations in a character analysis. Support your ideas with examples from the story.
3. John Steinbeck wrote "The Turtle" as a prelude for his novel The Grapes of Wrath, which portrays the struggles of a Depression-era farm family. Steinbeck intended that readers draw parallels between the prelude and the novel. Write an essay connecting the events described in "The Turtle" to the lives of ordinary people during the Great Depression.
4. Write an essay in which you compare the two viewpoints suggested by the title "The Far and the Near." Explain how the engineer's view of things depends on distance from or proximity to them. Consider what the story suggests about the dreams we dream from afar.
5. Stevens, Moore, and Macliesh were not only three of the most important American poets of the twentieth century, they were three of the deepest thinkers about the art of poetry. Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the ideas expressed in two of these poems about poetry. Note the distinct ways in which each poet explains, above all, why poetry is important.
6. Using either "Chicago," or "Grass," write an essay analyzing Sanburg's use of repetition. Explain the ways in which the poet's use of repetition emphasizes particular ideas and heightens specific emotions.
7. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Faulkner ntoes that the writer's duty is to help people "endure by lifting their hearts, by reminding them of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of the past." Choose a short story that we have read during the second semester and evaluate it in terms of how well the author fulfills Faulkner's ideal.
8. Paul Laurence Dunbar uses figurative language and symbolic language, among other poetic devices, to portray the concerns of African Americans in post-slavery America. Analyze Dunbar's use of poetic devices and explain how they are used to convey his message.
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