Study Questions for Final Exam

Below are sample essay questions to guide you when studying for the final exam. The final will be closed-book; therefore, your text will not be allowed. As a result, you will have to rely on your knowledge and experience from reading the course texts throughout the semester to fuel your answers.

Remember that we meet on Monday 5/21 for the final in our regular room at the regularly scheduled time. You have one hour and fifty minutes to complete the exam.

Please answer six of the following questions below thoughtfully and completely by composing a full paragraph for each response. Recall the assigned readings you encountered this semester from Stanford’s Responding to Literature, as well as our in-class discussions and your written work to help fuel your writing. If you should need more space, please utilize and attach a separate piece of paper. You have one hour and fifty minutes to finish this exam.

1.)   In Patricia Grace’s short story “Butterflies,” which character did you find to be the most agreeable? Which did you find to be the most troublesome? Explain your answer using examples from your own life, if possible.

2.)   In Tim O’Brien’s war story entitled “The Things They Carried,” the author writes of “the burden of being alive” (944). Describe what this burden may be according to the characters of the text, both tangibly and intangibly. Then, offer your view of how life is a burden. How do the characters in the story overcome this seemingly impossible obstacle? How do you?

3.)   Kurt Vonnegut is a unique war author, in that he himself experienced the atrocities of World War II and survived to tell the tale, albeit in a fictional and sometimes nonfictional way. Based on his short story “Just You and Me, Sammy” the argument can be made that killing is sometimes acceptable. Using what you remember from this text, agree or disagree with this argument.

4.)   The trials and tribulations of being in love is a theme that the main character displays in James Joyce’s story “Araby.” Growing from innocence to experience is another theme that is presented through this text. Offer an example from you own life that relates to the experience of the main character in this short story.

5.)   Being physically ill is unfortunately something that most of us have had to experience at one point or another in our lives. Yet, suffering from a mental illness is something that is certainly less common; it is a type of illness that is frequently misunderstood and even criticized by many people to this day. How does the mental illness of the main character in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper” manifest itself physically? Is she to blame? How have you felt physically and/or mentally trapped in your own life? 

6.)   Sadly, while poetry is certainly one of the oldest forms of literature, it is frequently viewed as a genre of writing that is difficult for many contemporary readers to grasp. Based on your readings of Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” Kinnell’s “When the Towers Fell,” and the various poems we encountered by Dickinson, express your feelings about poetry. Which of the aforementioned texts was the most engaging for you as a reader and which text was not? Explain why.

7.)   Whether we like it or not, conflicts in human relationships seem to be natural and almost expected. Reflect briefly upon Wendy Wasserstein’s drama The Man in a Case. Describe the relationship between the man and the woman in the play. What is important to each of them and what is important to them both? What is the source of their conflict? Does their relationship remind you of any relationships you know about?

8.)   In Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit, Garcin’s famous line “L'enfer, c'est les autres” or “Hell is other people” touches upon the absurdity of the human condition. First, deconstruct the meaning of Garcin’s utterance. Second, describe what about this play did you find to be absurd. Third, consider how this play could be enlightening in its critique and exposure of human nature.

9.)   When we inquisitively look at nature, we are often shocked at how often we gain a greater understanding of our selves, rather than the specimen in question. Therefore, according to Virginia Woolf’s essay “The Death of the Moth,” what does her examination of the dying moth reveal to her as the author and to you as the reader?

10.)   When exposed to the inevitability of death, we, as living creatures, are often compelled to question our lives, their meaning, and our place and influence upon the world. How does Alice Walker’s essay “To Hell with Dying” and Stephen Jay Gould’s essay “The Median Isn’t the Message” expose this line of questioning? Has death caused you to question things in a similar or dissimilar fashion as Walker and Gould? Explain using personal experiences.