literature final exam

Answer one question from each of the following sections (one poetry question and one of the Death of a Salesman questions). You should write a total of two short essays (about 3 paragraphs each) for the final. Submit the two separate essays as one document by 7/16 using the Assignment Drop Box in the Week 8 Materials folder.

Section I: Poetry (worth up to 50 points)

Directions: Choose one of the following questions and answer in a detailed essay. You will need to use your textbook to find the poems. Use details from the poems to support your answers. Use direct quotations as appropriate.

1. A popular theme in poetry is the carpe diem or âseize the dayâ poem. In this type of poetry the speaker is usually trying to urge his audience (either the reader or a specific fictional character the speaker is addressing) to live for the moment because life is short.

Analyze the following two poems in a detailed essay, making sure to discuss how they apply the principle of carpe diem:

Andrew Marvell, âTo His Coy Mistressâ (505) and John Donneâs âThe Flea.â

Alternatively, you could compare and contrast one of the above carpe diem poems with Robert Frostâs âStopping By Woods on a Snowy Eveningâ (684). Note that Frost is not exactly agreeing with the carpe diem theme. Explain how what he is saying is different.

2. Recognizing and understanding imagery in poems is key to enjoying them. Through well-written imagery we can see, feel, hear, taste, and smell the experience being described by the poet. Shakespeare is a master of such imagery, as he is of so many other uses of language.

Analyze at least two of the following poems. In doing so, be sure to discuss how Shakespeare uses concrete sensory details (imagery) as well as figurative language (such as metaphors) to capture the abstract feeling of love, or the abstract concept of time passing.

âMy mistressâ eyes are nothing like the sun,â p. 647; âNot marble, nor the gilded monuments,â p. 647-648; âLet me not to the marriage of true minds,â p. 648; âThat time of year thou mayst in me behold,â p. 564; and âLike as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,â p. 606.

Section II: Death of a Salesman (worth up to 50 points)

Directions: Choose one of the following questions and answer in a detailed essay. Support your answer with details (including quotations, as relevant) from the text.

1.Willy dreams the American dream. In what way does it become a nightmare for himâor does he die content?

2.The entire action of the play seems to come together in the statement by Linda Loman in which she says of her husband âAttention must be paid.â Why does she forgive what her sons resent so muchâhis infidelities, his temper? What did she know about his life as a traveling salesman and his missed financial chances? What does she want from and for him now?

3.In what ways is Death of a Salesman a play of social protest, and what are Willyâs ideals? What point is Arthur Miller trying to make about the economic system that reduces a man to such desperate measures to try to make a success of his life? Where in the play do you see Willy contemplating his worth?