Mid-Term Exam
Name:________________________
Fiction Selections:
*Use the Fiction Selections bank to identify (by writing the corresponding capital letter of the fiction in the blank provided) the selection from which the quoted passage is taken. Then, in the space below each quoted passage, identify the speaker and write a brief explanation of the significance of the quotation in relation to the entire short story. Be sure to identify any major literary terms that are evident in the quoted passage. An example answer is provided for you.
Ex. “A short story that we can treat as a serious work of art will not yield all its subtlety at first glance; in order to understand and appreciate its author’s achievement fully, we may have to examine its components—its plot, characterization, point of view, theme, setting, and style and symbolism—noting how each part contributes to the overall effect.”
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In this passage, the editor of our textbook explains the concept of literary analysis. Such analysis is a necessary part of critical thinking and writing about fiction. By analyzing a text, readers can read for both entertainment and for an academic, moral, and ethical education. Also, analysis is the primary way that students can demonstrate their deep understanding of fiction.
1.“[She] nodded her head toward the still-red ruins, ‘This one has their names on it so you can write home about them.’ She calmly handed the white sheet to the officer, who was now holding her by the shoulders, and she continued. ‘You can write them how this all happened, and you can tell their parents that I was the one who did it.’”
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2. “Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene—perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium. He stands at the gate of his own home. . . As he is about to clasp [his wife] he feels a stunning blow upon the back of his neck; a blinding light blazes all about him . . ”
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3.“Lately I had been trying to make my part of the room fancy, spreading the bed with old lace curtains, and fixing myself a dressing table . . . . I still . . . told myself stories, but even in these stories something different was happening, mysterious alterations took place.”
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4.“’Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.’”
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5.“’That’s why it’s better to be born lucky than rich. If you’re rich, you may lose your money. But if you’re lucky you will always get more money.’”
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6.“The carnations in his coat were drooping with the cold, he noticed; their red glory all over. It occurred to him that all the flowers he had seen in the glass cases that first night must have gone the same way, long before this. It was only one splendid breath they had, in spite of their brave mockery at the winter outside the glass; and it was a losing game in the end, it seemed, this revolt against the homilies by which the world is run.”
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7. “And for the first time, or so it seemed, I noticed the piece on the right-hand side. It was called ‘Perfectly Contented.’ I tried to play this one as well. It had a lighter melody but the same flowing rhythm and turned out to be quite easy. ‘Pleading Child’ was shorter, but slower; ‘Perfectly Contented’ was longer, but faster. And after I played these both a few times, I realized they were two halves of the same song.”
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8. “The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across, on the other side, were fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees.”
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9. “Babs . . . had more edge, as they say. Funny where she got it, with those two nullities as parents..”
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10. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”
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11. “Her heart rose. He had not made her a nigger or white trash or ugly! He had made her herself and given her a little bit of everything. Jesus, thank you, she said. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
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12. “The river was high and full of winter trash when we got there. . . . It was just at
its limit, hard swollen, glossy like an old gray scar. We made ourselves a fire, and
we sat down and watched the current go. As I watched it I felt something
squeezing inside of me and tightening and trying to let go all at the same time. . . .
I couldn’t stand it, the closing and opening.”
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13. “I will never total it all; I will never come in. . . . Let her be. So all that is in her will not bloom—but in how many does it? There is still enough left to live by.”
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14. “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he
become from the night of that fearful dream. . . . And when he had lived long, and
was borne to his grave a hoary corpse . . . they carved no hopeful verse upon his
tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.
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15. “Everything about her had two sides to it, one for home and one for anywhere
that was not home. . . . [her blouse] . . . her walk . . . her mouth . . . her laugh.”
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16. “Yes, she had changed her mind after sixty years, and she would like to see George. . . . Find him and be sure to tell him I forgot him. I want him to know I had my husband just the same and my children and my house like any woman. A good house and a good husband that I loved and fine children out of him. Better than I hoped for even. Tell him I was given back everything he took away and more. Oh no oh, God, no there was something else besides the house and the man and the children. . . What was it? Something not given back. . . .”
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17. “’Will somebody please cut my throat like a Christian?’ And Jed hollered back, ‘Sorry, but ain’t no Christians around tonight. Ain’t no Jew-boys neither. We’re just one hundred percent Americans.’”
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18. “’You handed over our brother. You will pay for this.’”
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19. “I stood there a moment. Everything went still. Then I heard a cry building in the wind, faint at first, a whistle and then a shrill scream that tore through the walls and gathered around me, spoke plain so I understood that I should move, put my arms out, and slam down the great iron bar that fit across the hasp and lock.”
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20. “He never seemed to mind the cold. . . . [and] if he gets a sting, He don’t really mind.”
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21. “Nobel says he saw everything ten times the size, as though there were nothing in the whole world but that little patch of bog . . . but with me it was as if the patch of bog where the Englishmen were was a million miles away . . . and I was somehow very small and very lost and lonely like a child astray in the snow. And anything that happened to me afterwards, I never felt the same about again.”
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22. “A dress down to the ground, in this hot weather. A dress so loud it hurts my
eyes. There are yellows and oranges enough to throw back the light of the sun. I
feel my whole face warming from the heat waves it throws out. Earrings, too,
gold and hanging down to her shoulders. Bracelets dangling and making noises
when she moves her arm up to shake down the folds of her loose and flowing
dress.”
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23. “’Why you’re one of my own babies. You’re one of my own children!’”
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24. “It was a big squarish frame house that had once been white, . . . set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only [her] house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores.”
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25. “’I’ve never lived as you do, but I know what you mean. When the night is
dark—why the stars are sharp-pointed, and there’s quiet. Why, you rise up and
up! Every pointed star gets driven into your body. It’s like that. Hot and sharp—
and lovely.’”
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