《美国文学》练习问答题

1.

For American

Benjamin Franklin

(1706-1790)

1. Is Franklin a man of religious principles? Why does he stop attending public service? 2. Explain 13 virtues Franklin chooses

for

his

moral

improvement.

3. What is Franklin’s attitude towards moral perfection? 4. What are significance of the moralistic self- discipline, according to Franklin?

5. What virtues does Franklin think he has never achieved? 6. Comment on the Criticism that some authors made on Franklin,

Week 2: Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

1. What does “whim” mean in the “Self-reliance”? and why does 2. What like,

is

Emerson an

acrostic

to

call or the

consistency “foolish”? Alexandrian stanza character

according such

as

Hawthorn,

Lawrence. (History p.53-54)

Self-relaince?

3. Explain “to talk of reliance is a poor

external

way

of

speaking. Speak rather of that which relies, because it works and is.” and the context that gives rise to this statement in the Self-reliance.

4. What

are Emerson’s

comments on Jesus Christ in “The Divinity School Address”? Please

compare

it

with

Thomas Paine’s in The Age of Reason.

Week Three：Henry David

Thoreau (1817--1862)

1. What is the analogy between that striped snake lying on the bottom of the pond and the man in the early spring? How is a stray goose like the spirit of the fog? 2. What

is

Thoreau’s

understanding of the beauty of an architecture? And what does

he

think

of

the

architectural ornaments? In what cases will a “carpenter” be a “coffin-maker”? 3. Why does Thoreau say “Those things for which the most

money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants” ? What is your comment on Thoreau’s idea of higher education? 4. Is Thoreau a quietist or a hermit in the woods of Walden? Why or why not?

Week four: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864):

1. What did the boy, at nightfall, hear when he was playing

with the scattered fragments of marble? And how did he respond?

2. What does author compare the kiln with?

3. What question struck Ethan Brand’s

mind

on

that

portentous night 18 years ago? Did he find the answer to it after 18-year-wandering in the world? What is it? 4. What kind of person is Ethan Brand in his youth hood? What

causes

his

transformation? What is the end of his life?

5. How does the old dog’s pursuit of his tail parallel Ethan Brand’s

search

for

the

Unpardonable Sin?

6. What is your understanding of the little boy Joe? What virtues does he stand for?

Week Five: Herman Melville (1819-1891)

1. How did Ahab respond when Moby-Dick appear before him in the last day of the chasing Moby-Dick? And how did he respond in the last two days before ? Do you think

Ahab’s attitudes towards Moby-Dick

undergo

any

changes? Why?

2. What are the Fedallah’s prophecy about Ahab’s death? Does it come true? And how? I

3. Who is the only survivor of the Pequod? And how? 4. What

are

the

symbolic

meanings of Moby-Dick and Captain Ahab? And also the symbolic meaning of the death of the bird of heaven at the end of the novel? 5. How do you understand the

ending sentence: “and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.” ? Week

6

Walt

Whitman

（1819-1892）

1. What does Whitman’s “self” refer to? Why is Whitman’s “myself” different from the narrow egotism?

2. Why does Whitman call his life’s work Leaves of Grass? What does “a leaf of grass’’ mean to you? To Whitman?

3. What is the ending of Song of

Myself? And how will you respond invitation? Week

7

Emily

Dickinson

（1830-1886）

1. Dickinson is well-known for her poetic meditations on dying and death. What is so moving and touching in her death meditations? Do you think the speak

fears

of

death?

Discuss your understanding with the help of her poems. 2. What

images

does

the

poetess introduce in the

to

Whitman’s

“Hope”, and how do they work as the metaphors of the idea ---HOPE?

3. How does the triumphing human

spirit

permeate

through Dickinson’s poetry of human suffering? Illustrate your ideas with her specific poems. Week

8

Edgar

Allan

Poe

(1809-1849)

1. How many times is the word “nevermore” repeated? And what inquiries that “I” raised incites the raven to

respond to with

“Nevermore’?

2. Besides “nevermore”, what is (are) the other word or words that you find highly repeated? Why?

3. How do Poe’s poems and stories correspond to the literary principals he raised in his “Poetic Principles” and “

The

Philosophy

of

Composition”? Discuss with Poe’s poems and stories as example.