Sample Exam Directions

Short Answer (50%)
Choose SIX of the following EIGHT questions and answer in 3-5 sentences. You should spend about 45-50 minutes on this section and it counts for 50% of your grade. Answer thoroughly and include detailed and specific reference to the course material being tested. Your answer must show knowledge of the texts in question.

Passage Analysis (25%)
The following passage is taken from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. Read it carefully and then write a brief analysis in which you clearly explain what is happening or being described in this particular excerpt. Then relate the passage to the concerns and themes of the book in general, as presented in the lecture and developed in your discussion section. You should spend 30-35 minutes on this passage analysis. Your answer should cover two large blue book pages and could be even longer.

Essay Question (25%)
Choose ONE of the following TWO questions and answer it in a substantial essay that fills roughly three large blue book pages. Make specific reference in your answer to the texts in question, and to the lectures, class discussion or study questions, where relevant. You should spend 30-35 minutes on this section and it counts for 25% of your grade.

Exam Study Points

Final Exam Study Sheet: Please post questions below (in comments), so that I can address them either here or in class on Wednesday.

The Aristotle
Rene Descartes, The Meditations on First Philosophy
Jane Austen, Persuasion
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Course Reader, chapters 8 (Analyzing Narrative), 9 (Comparison and Contrast), 10 (Application), and 11 (Genre)

ethos/pathos/logos
Aristotelian intermediacy, excellence
Hylomorphism, soul (mind/body)
material, formal, efficient, formal causes
causal analysis
Sense deception, error
Doubt (dream hypothesis, “evil genius”)
Epistemology/Ontology
Meditation
Objective reality/formal reality
Imagining/Sensing/Perceiving
Will
Intellect, Understanding
Difference between mind and body for Descartes
Thesis #1: “Descartes is again looking for answers not to the world outside but to his interior thinking experience.”
“clearly and distinctly”
irony
assessment/judgment
persuasion
gentry
satiric field
direct discourse/indirect discourse/free indirect discourse/compression of discourse
sentiments/sensations
genre
narrative/narration
social commentary/satire
comedy
Kellynch Hall—from gentry estate to naval family
Aristocracy/meritocracy
Thinking against Austen—fact vs. fiction, creation of empire, defense of Navy
Unthinkability of novel and imperialism without each other
Interiority
Induction
Application
Transitions and development: “articulating a difference from what has been said before while
also establishing a connection.”
The good of a novel
Epistemological confidence
The body as condition of existence
Gesture
Racial self-contempt
Narrative voice/tone
Suffering/trauma
Madness
interiorization/internalization

raising questions

Photo: Dreamland Theater, Lorain Ohio

1. What is Morrison trying to do by titling the parts of the Breedlove’s life with various parts of the "Jane" story?

2. Why does Pecola and Freida admire Shirley Temple?

3. Why does Mr. Yacobowski find it hard to look at Pecola?

4. What is the significance of switching the narrative’s point of view?

5. Why is Pecola still unsatisfied even after she got her "blue eyes?" Why does she want them to be the bluest?

6. How are Persuasion, Meditations on First Philosophy, and The Bluest Eye related?

7. One of the main themes in the novel The Bluest Eye is the racism
against and oppression of colored people, yet there are not many instances
in the novel where white people directly show racism. What aspect of the
book makes it racist?

8. What is the significance of the "perfect family" of Father, Mother, Dick, and Jane in The Bluest Eye. What does it serve as?

9. What seems to be the dominant gender in the novel and why? Give specific examples from the novel along with comparisons and contrasts to support your answer.

10. Are the first-person narrators reliable or unreliable (provide evidence)? What does this contribute or take away from the story?

11. How does the Jane/Dick/Mom/Dad story help convey the themes of the novel?

12. What roles do eyes (in general) play throughout the novel? Look for specific text citations.

13. Near the end of the novel, Pecola has a conversation with an unknown person/voice about her new blue eyes. Who do you think this voice is, and what might it represent?

14. Claudia and Frieda try to help Pecola, but after the baby dies, they stop talking to her. Why?

15. Why does Claudia dismember the dolls she is given, and why do the adults get so upset with her for it?

16. Why does Pecola like drinking milk?

17. Why does Pecola visit Soaphead Church, and what does the dog named Bob relate to them?

18. Who is Maureen Peal?

19. Does Toni Morrison ask us to identify with one form of consciousness throughout the novel or many? Explain.

20. What is "epistemological confidence" in relation to Morrison's The Bluest Eye?

21. What is the significance of the Boys on the street corner flicking ash from their cigarette butts and what does the gesture expose about them?
22. What is beauty? What is beauty to Claudia?

23. Maureen Peal came into Claudia's and Frieda's life. How did this person affect their lives?

24. What do you think of Pecola's method of relieving herself after watching her parents fight?

stories within stories

Black Doll White Doll by Kiri Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg
Kiri Davis, a 17-year old high school student and maker of the short film, A Girl Like Me, re-enacts doll test given to children during the 1950's Brown vs. Board of Education Case.

What is the significance of intertextuality and allusion? What other examples can you think of in The Bluest Eye?

Imitation of Life: a movie watched by Maureen Peal and by her mother some four times or so...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imitation_of_Life_(1934_film)