American Literature
What is considered Captain John Smith's most important work?
"A General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles"
What is the name of the first book in American literature?
"A True Relation of Virginia" by Captain John Smith (Note: this is an abbreviated title of a much longer title)
Name works by Jonathan Edwards.
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God;" The End For Which God Created the World; The Life of David Brainerd; Religious Affections
What is considered to be Roger Williams most famous book and what is it about?
"The Bloody Tenent of Persecution" is about religious liberty
What is William Byrd's most important work? What was it about? When was it started?
"The History of the Dividing Line" was an account of Byrd's survey expedition trip to clear up the dispute about the border between Virginia and North Carolina. He began writing this in 1728
What is the title of Olaudah Equiano's work? When was it first published?
"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" was published in England in 1789
What is the title of Mary Rowlandson's famous writing?
"The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson"
Recite the poem "In a Station of the Metro."
"The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough."
Give the famous line from American Crisis.
"These are the times that try men's souls."
Name the most notable book by William Bartram.
"Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida" published 1791 know as just "Travels"
Name three common motifs that Washington Irving shares with folk tales from around the world.
1) mysterious supernatural beings 2) sleep-inducing potion 3) perilous journey
Name three works by Captain John Smith.
1.) "A True Relation of Virginia" 2.) A General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles" 3.) "The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith in Europe, Asia, and America"
Name two works by John Winthrop.
1.) "History of New England" 2.) "A Model of Christian Charity"
During which time period did Horatio Alger, Jr. live?
1832 - 1899
During which time period did Samuel Clemons live?
1835 - 1910
During which time period did William Dean Howells live?
1837 - 1920
During which time period did Henry James live?
1843 - 1916
During which time period did Mark Twain write?
1869 (Civil War) - 1939 (Great depression period)
During which time period did Emma Goldman live?
1869 -1940
During which time period did Gertrude Stein live?
1874 - 1946
During which time period did Wallace Stevens live?
1879 - 1955
During which time period did John Neihardt live?
1881 - 1973
During which time period did Sinclair Lewis live?
1885 - 1951
During which time period did Edna St. Vincent Millay live?
1892 - 1950
During which period did John Dos Passos live?
1896 - 1970
During which time period did Malcolm Cowley live?
1898 - 1989
During which time period did Hart Crane live?
1899 - 1932
During which time period does Ernest Hemingway live?
1899 - 1961
During which time period did Thomas Wolfe live?
1900 - 1938
During which time period did Robert Penn Warren live?
1905 - 1989
During which time period did Henry Roth live?
1906 - 1995
During which time period did Tennessee Williams live?
1911 - 1983
During which time period did Will Rogers write?
1920's
During which time period did Dorothy Parker write?
1920's - 1930's
During which time period did Robert Benchley write?
1920's - 1940's
During which years did the Marx Brothers write their humorous dramas?
1930's
During which time period did John Cheever write?
1930's - 1980's
During which time period did Isaac Bashevis Singer write?
1930's - 1990's
During which timer period does Gwendolyn Brooks write?
1930's - 2000
During which general time period did James Thurber write?
1940's - 1950's
During which time period did Robert Lowell write?
1940's - 1970's
During which time period did Saul Bellow write?
1940's - 1980's
During which time period did Truman Capote write?
1940's - 1980's
During which time period does Norman Mailer write?
1940's - present
During which time period did Flannery O'Connor write?
1950's - 1960's
During which years did Jack Kerouac write?
1950's - 1960's
During which years did William Burroughs write?
1950's - 1960's
During which years was the Beat or Beatnik movement?
1950's - 1960's
During which time period did Bernard Malamud write?
1950's - 1980's
During which time period did James Baldwin write?
1950's - 1980's
During which time period did Ralph Ellison write?
1950's - 1990's
During which years did Allen Ginsberg write?
1950's - 1990's
During which time period does John Updike write?
1950's - 2009
During which time period does Maya Angelou write?
1950's - 2013
During which time period does Philip Roth write?
1950's - current
During which time period does Elie Wiesel write?
1950's - present
During which time period does N. Scott Momaday write?
1950's - present
When did J.D. Salinger write his famous story?
1951
During which years did Sylvia Plath write?
1960's
During which years did Anne Sexton write?
1960's - 1970's
During which time period does Alice Walker write?
1960's - present
During which time period does Joyce Carol Oates write?
1960's - present
During which time period does Leslie Marmon Silko write?
1970's - present
During which time period does Mary Gordon write?
1970's - present
During which time period does Stephen King write?
1970's - present
During which time period does Toni Morrison write?
1970's - present
During which time period is Eric Jong associated?
1970's - present
During which time period does Richard Rodriguez write?
1980's
During which time period does William Least Heat Moon write?
1980's
During which time period does Jamaica Kincaid write?
1980's - present
During which time period does Louise Erdrich write?
1980's - present
What is in Washington Irving's "Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.?"
34 essays and short stories - the two most famous are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
What are the Federalist Papers?
85 essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton promoting the ratification of the Constitution
Describe the plot in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
A Confederate sympathizer, Peyton Farquhar, is hanged from a bridge. The rope breaks and he travels home but then he feels pain in his neck. The reader realizes that Peyton really was hung (the rope did not break) and died from a broken neck.
Name important works by James Russell Lowell.
A Fable for Critics; Biglow Papers
What is the plot of Farewell to Arms?
A Farewell to Arms is about a love affair between the expatriate American Frederic Henry (American ambulance driver) and Catherine Barkley (English nurse) against the backdrop of the First World War. They meet in a hospital. Frederic deserts the army and he and Catherine flee to Switzerland in a rowboat. Catherine and her unborn baby die and Frederic is left alone.
Name Washington Irving's first important work.
A History of New York
Describe the plot of The Jungle.
A Lithuanian family meets physical and moral decay after facing harsh working and living conditions in Chicago. They experience poverty, death, abuse, drugs, imprisonment, homelessness, hopelessness. But inspiration comes from socialist rallies. Obviously the author is an advocate of socialism. This piece was first published in a socialist newspaper "Appeal to Reason"
Name works by Mary Wilkins Freeman.
A New England Nun and Other Stories; A Humble Romance and Other Stories
Name works by Roger Williams.
A Plea for Religious Liberty; The Hireling Ministry None of Christ's; Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health; The Bloody Tenent of Persecution
Name an important play by Lorraine Hansberry.
A Raisin in the Sun
Name poetry collections by Gwendolyn Brooks.
A Street in Bronzeville; Primer for Blacks; Young Poets' Primer; Blacks
What is the plot of Billie Budd, Sailor?
A US seaman, Billie Budd, is impressed into service aboard the English HMS Bellipotent ship. He was then impressed upon another ship named "The Rights of Man."
Describe the plot in Native Son.
A black man accidentally kills a white girl from the family for whom he works. He kills his girlfriend too. He is caught and executed.
What is the plot of Faulkner's "The Big Sleep?"
A dying old man (General Sternwood) has two beautiful, uncontrollable daughters: Vivien and Carmen. Carmen is being blackmailed, and her father hires private detective Philip Marlowe to get the blackmailer off her back. But Marlowe finds that somebody else has done this job for him; the blackmailer is murdered right under his nose.
Describe the plot of James' "Golden Bowl."
A father, Adam Verver, and daughter, Maggie Verver, in England each marry. The persons they marry know each other from the past. They end up having an affair. The owner of an antique shop selling a golden bowl, reveals to Maggie that on the eve of her marriage to Prince Amerigo, he saw him in the shop with at the time single, Charlotte Stant (Adam's wife). They were talking intimately.
What is the Algonquin Group?
A group of New York City writers who met for lunch and witty conversation at the Algonquin Hotel during the 1920's
Describe the plot of The Purloined Letter.
A letter has been stolen from a lady. Detective Dupin finds it on the mantel of Minister D-.
What is Babbitt about?
A middle-aged successful businessman living the American dream, decides to break away from his conformist life to one of having affairs and fun. He jeopardizes his reputation, business standing, and his marriage.
What is a rhetorical question?
A question that is asked to create a dramatic effect or make a point rather than to get an answer.
What is the plot of The Call of the Wild?
A tame dog reverts back to his primitive state when he must live in the wilderness
What is the plot of The Red Badge of Courage?
A teenager enlists in the Union Army during the Civil War hoping for glory. An injury would be a red badge of courage.
What is the plot of Feathertop?
A witch, Mother Rigby, builds a scarecrow for her garden but later decides to make it come alive. She uses it to gain the affections of a judge's daughter so she can deal with a previous situation involving the judge. The daughter, Polly, falls in love with the scarecrow but the truth is revealed in a mirror. Polly faints and the scarecrow falls into a heap of his makings.
What is the plot of The Yellow Wallpaper?
A woman who suffers a mental breakdown due to the birth of her child is given a "cure" of isolation in a room which has yellow wallpaper. She goes insane in the room.
What was in the New England Primer?
ABC's, phonics, a catechism, a creed, a cradle hymn, the Lord's Prayer, and other prayers
Name the main characters in As I Lay Dying.
Addie, Anse, Cash, Darl, Jewell, Dewey (all Bundrens)
With which group of writers is Ralph Ellison associated?
African American
With which group of writers is Alice Walker associated?
African-American
With which group of writers is Jamaica Kincaid associated?
African-American
With which group of writers is James Baldwin associated?
African-American
With which group of writers is Maya Angelou associated?
African-American
With which group of writers is Toni Morrison associated?
African-American
With which school of writers is Gwendolyn Brooks associated?
African-American
Name characters in O Pioneers!
Alexandra Bergson, Carl Linstrum, Emil Bergson, Marie Shabata (set in Nebraska)
Name works by Robert Penn Warren.
All the King's Men; At Heaven's Gate; Night Rider.
Name characters in the Glass Menagerie.
Amanda Wingfield, Tom Wingfield, Laura Wingfield, and Jim O'Connor.
What unofficial title can be given to Mary Rowlandson's famous narrative and why?
America's first "bestseller." Her narrative became extremely popular and triggered other such "captivity narratives."
What title does Anne Bradstreet receive in the world of American Literature?
America's first published poet
What is the plot of Henry James' "Portrait of a Lady?"
American Isabel Archer travels to London to visit her aunt and uncle. She meets various suitors and eventually marries Gilbert Osmond an American expatriate. She is disappointed in the marriage.
With which literary movement is Mary Wilkins Freeman associated?
American Literary Regionalism specifically New England
With which literary movement is Sarah Orne Jewett associated?
American Literary Regionalism specifically along the Maine coast in the fictional town of Dunnet Landing, Maine
William Dean Howells, Rebecca Harding Davis, Henry James, and Mark Twain are associated with which literary movement?
American Realism
What two concepts did J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur contribute to the American consciousness?
Americans are unique and the "melting pot" concept
Name characters in This Side of Paradise.
Amory Blaine, Rosalind Connage, Monsignor Darcy, Beatrice Blaine, and Isabelle Borge.
Name works by Phillis Wheatley.
An Address to the Atheist; To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty; On Being Brought from Africa to America
What story within William Bartram's "Travels" book has gained attention because of its exciting topic?
An Escape from Alligators
What important short story did Ambrose Bierce write and when?
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1890)
What literary element did Mary Rowlandson use frequently in her writing? Give the definition of this term?
An allusion is a reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science, or some other branch of culture.
What is the plot of The Grapes of Wrath?
An impoverished family from Oklahoma (Dustbowl) travels to California to find work. They stay at various worker camps and repeatedly find themselves in desperate situations including the inability to secure food to eat. The book is a plea for California land owners to be more tolerant of those less fortunate.
What is the plot of Old Man and the Sea?
An old fisherman in Cuba waits patiently many days before he catches a huge marlin and attempts to haul it to port but the fish gets devoured to the bone by sharks.
Name works by Emma Goldman.
Anarchism and Other Essays; The Social Significance of the Modern Drama; My Disillusionment in Russia; Living My Life (autobiography)
Name works by Wallace Stevens, modernist poet.
Anecdote of the Jar; Disillusionment of Ten O'clock; and The Emperor of Ice-Cream. (poems)
Name works by the Marx Brothers.
Animal Crackers; Horse Feathers; Duck Soup; Night at the Opera; A Day at the Races; Room Service
Name important works by Jamaica Kincaid.
Annie John; Lucy; At the Bottom of the River; A Small Place
Name characters in My Antonia.
Antonia Shimerda, Lena Lingard, Josiah Burden, and Emmaline Burden, Jim Burden (narrator) (set in Nebraska)
Name works by John O'Hara.
Appointment in Samarra; BUtterfield 8
With which group of writers is Amy Tan associated?
Asian-American
With which group of writers is Maxine Hong Kingston associated?
Asian-American
Name characters in "The Murders in Rue Morgue."
Auguste Dupin, Madame L'Espanaye, Mademoiselle Camille, Adolphe Le Bon, and the unnamed narrator.
Name important works by Sinclair Lewis.
Babbitt; Main Street
What was the first book printed in the colonies? What year?
Bay Psalm Book in 1640
With which movement is Allen Ginsberg associated?
Beatnick
With which movement is Jack Kerouac associated?
Beatnik
Name works by Alice Adams.
Beautiful Girl; To See You Again; Return Trips; After You've Gone (1970's - 1980's)(short stories and novels)
Name Toni Morrison's notable works.
Beloved; Song of Solomon; The Bluest Eye; Sula; Tar Baby; Jazz
Who wrote these lines: Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Benjamin Franklin
Name the characters in The Sound and the Fury.
Benjy Compson, Quentin Compson, Jason Compson, and their black servant Dilsey
Name characters in Native Son.
Bigger Thomas (main character), Mary Dalton, Jan, Mrs. Thomas, and Henry Dalton
Name an important work by John Neihardt.
Black Elk Speaks
Name notable works by Joyce Carol Oates.
Black Water; What I Lived For; Blonde
What is the plot in "A Streetcar Named Desire?"
Blanche DuBois gets fired from her teaching job because she has an affair with a student. She moves in with her sister, Stella, and husband Stanley Kowalski. Stanley hates Blanche's fancy airs about being from a rich plantation. He uncovers her past. Blanche has a mental breakdown. The play ends with Blanche being committed to a mental institute.
Name a novel by Rudolfo Anaya.
Bless Me, Ultima (1972)
Name William Least Heat Moon's important work.
Blue Highways
Name the characters in The Call of the Wild.
Buck (dog), John Thornton, Spitz (rival dog), Francois Perrault
Name the detective and the prefect of police in Edgar Allen Poe's detective series.
C. Auguste Dupin (detective); G- (prefect of police)
What is Kate Chopin's "The Storm" about?
Calixta invites a former boyfriend, Alcee, into her house to wait out a storm while her husband, Bobinot, and son, Bibi, wait out the storm at a store. They have an affair.
Name important works by Henry Roth.
Call It Sleep; Mercy of a Rude Stream; An American Type
Name Jean Toomer's important work.
Cane
Name important works by Ezra Pound.
Cantos; Hugh Selwyn Mauberly: Life and Contacts; Mauberly; A Pact
Who wrote the first book in American literature? In what year?
Captain John Smith in 1608
Name the three poets associated with the Chicago School of poets.
Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, Vachel Lindsay
What is Sinclair Lewis' "Main Street" about?
Carol Milford is a liberal, free-spirited young woman, reared in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the state capital. She marries Will Kennicott, a doctor, who is a small-town boy at heart. When they marry, Will convinces her to live in his home-town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota. She is appalled at the backwardness of Gopher Prairie. But her disdain for the town's physical ugliness and smug conservatism compels her to reform it.
What is the plot in Sister Carrie?
Carrie Meeber is an ordinary girl who rises from a low-paid wage earner to a high-paid actress. She has an affair with married George Hurstwood, a member of the upper middle class. They eventually marry but she dumps him and he falls from his comfortable lifestyle to a life on the streets.
Name characters in Sister Carrie.
Carrie Meeber, George Hurstwood, Charlie Drouet
Name famous works by Stephen King.
Carrie; The Shining; The Stand; Misery; The Dark Tower; Under the Dome
Name important works by Joseph Heller.
Catch-22; Something Happened
Name an important work by Raymond Carver.
Cathedral (collection of short stories)
What is the setting for Rip Van Winkle?
Catskill mountains in New York around the time of the Revolutionary War
Name characters in The Color Purple.
Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, and Albert
Who wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Name poems written by Carl Sandburg.
Chicago Poems; Happiness; Under the Harvest Moon; Who Am I?; Remorse; The Four Brothers; "Chicago", "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years", and "Smoke and Steel".
With which school is Vachel Lindsay associated?
Chicago School
With which school of poets is Edgar Lee Masters associated?
Chicago School
What topic does Mary Gordon use in her writing?
Christian worldview
What is the plot of An American tragedy?
Clyde Griffiths drowns his pregnant girlfriend. He is convicted of murder and himself is executed by electric chair.
Name the characters in An American Tragedy.
Clyde Griffiths, Roberta, Hortense Briggs, Sondra Finchley
Name works by Countee Cullen.
Color; The Ballad of the Brown Girl; Any Human to Another; The Black Christ
Name works by Thomas Paine.
Common Sense (pamphlet); An American Crisis; The Rights of Man; The Age of Reason
Name works by Sylvia Plath.
Daddy; The Bell Jar; The Colossus; Ariel; Crossing the Water; Winter Trees
Name the main characters in Daisy Miller.
Daisy Miller, Frederick Winterbourne, Mrs. Costello, Mr. Giovanelli
Name novels by Henry James.
Daisy Miller; The American; The Turn of the Screw; Roderick Hudson; The Europeans; Washington Square; The Portrait of a Lady; The Bostonians; The Princess Casamassima, The Tragic Muse, The Spoils of Poynton; The Awkward Age; The Wings of the Dove; The Ambassadors; The Golden Bowl
What is the plot of Daisy Miller?
Daisy, an American girl living in Italy is having affairs with Italian men. An American suitor named Frederick Winterbourne eventually realizes that Daisy is not respectable. Daisy dies of malaria.
Name some of Robert Frost's most well-known poems.
Death of a Hired Man; Birches; Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; The Road Not Taken; Mending Wall
Name works by Arthur Miller (playwright)
Death of a Salesman; The Crucible; All My Sons; A View from the Bridge
Name Kate Chopin's most important short stories.
Desiree's Baby; The Story of an Hour; The Storm; The Awakening
Who was the fictitious narrator in Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle story?
Diedrich Knickerbocker
Name the three writers who were the core of the Algonquin group.
Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Robert Sherwood - all writers for Vanity Fair
Name the characters in The Turn of the Screw.
Douglas (narrator), the governess, Mrs. Grose (housekeeper), Miles (boy), Flora (girl), the Uncle
When did Jewish-American literature rise in popularity? Why then?
During the 1950's and 1960's because people began to accept them after their persecution during World War II.
On what topics is Washington Irving most known for?
Dutch people in New York and the American wilderness
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Name an important work by Louis Bromfield.
Early Autumn
Who wrote "The Man that Was Used Up?"
Edgar Allen Poe
Who wrote "A Descent into the Maelstrom" and what is the plot?
Edgar Allen Poe wrote this short story. It's about a man who was on a ship that got pulled under by a whirlpool (Swedish "Maelstrom"). One of his brother's went down, one brother went insane, and he himself survived to tell about the magical powers of a vortex. This story is considered an early form of science fiction.
Who wrote Ethan Frome?
Edith Wharton
Who wrote The House of Mirth?
Edith Wharton
Who wrote the Age of Innocence?
Edith Wharton
What is the plot in The Awakening?
Edna Pontellier gives up her family, money, respectability and eventually her life in search of self-realization. She commits suicide at the end.
Name characters in The Awakening.
Edna Pontellier, Leonce Pontellier, Robert LeBrun, Madame Adele Ratignolle, Mademoiselle Reisz, Alcee Arobin
Which poet paved the way for the imagist movement?
Emily Dickinson
Name authors considered American Romanticism writers.
Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
With whom is Countee Cullen compared?
English poet John Keats
Name works by Dorothy Parker.
Enough Rope; Sunset Gun; Death and Taxes; Big Blond
What is the plot of Ethan Frome?
Ethan Frome is an elderly, crippled farmer in Starkfield, Massachusetts. He tells his life story to a snowed-in traveler. His story: He marries Zenobia who has health issues. When her younger cousin, Mattie, comes to help out, he falls in love with her. Zenobia kicks Mattie out. He and Mattie try to commit suicide by sledding into a tree but are unsuccessful. Now he's crippled and Zenobia has to care for him and a paralyzed Mattie.
Name characters in Ethan Frome.
Ethan Frome, Zenobia Frome, Mattie Silver, Harmon Gow
Describe the plot in Saul Bellow's "Henderson the Rain King."
Eugene Henderson is unhappily married. He hears an inner voice calling out "I want, I want, I want" and decides to visit a primitive tribe in the African Sahara.
Name characters in Henderson the Rain King.
Eugene Henderson, King Dhafu, Romilayu, Miss Lenox
Name America's three foremost playwrights in the twentieth century.
Eugene O' Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams
Name important works by Malcolm Cowley.
Exile's Return; Blue Juniata
Who wrote the poem "In a Station of the Metro?"
Ezra Pound
Who are the most famous poets of the twentieth century?
Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
Name the poets associated with imagism.
Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, Hilda Doolittle, William Carlos Williams
What is "A Pact" about?
Ezra makes a pact admitting that even though he has hatred toward Walt, he acknowledges that Walt paved the way for him to become a successful poet.
Who wrote Tender is the Night?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Who wrote The Beautiful and the Damned?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Who wrote This Side of Paradise?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Name writers who relocated to Europe after WWI.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and Ezra Pound.
Name works by James Thurber.
Fables of Our Time; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; The Catbird Seat; Thurber Carnival; The Years with Ross; The Male Animal
Name works by Raymond Chandler.
Farewell My Lovely; The Little Sister; The Long Goodbye
What title can be given to Washington Irving?
Father of American Literature because he proved that memorable fiction could feature both American settings and American types.
Name works by Erica Jong.
Fear of Flying; Fruits and Vegetables; How to Save Your Own Life; Parachutes and Kisses; Inventing Memory
Name important works by Mary Gordon.
Final Payments; The Company of Women; Men and Angels; The Other Side; Temporary Shelter
What distinction does Lorraine Hansberry receive in American literature?
First African-American woman to write a play performed on Broadway.
Who were the Marx Brothers?
Four brothers who started off as musicians and then wrote humorous movies
What is the plot of The Open Boat?
Four people find themselves on a lifeboat off the coast of Florida when their ship sinks.
Name characters in "The Big Sleep."
General Sternwood, Vivien Sternwood, Carmen Sternwood, Philip Marlowe, Arthur Geiger, Terrance Regan, Eddie Mars
Name characters in Babbitt.
George Babbitt, Paul Reisling, Zilla, Tanis Judique
Name characters in Of Mice and Men.
George Milton, Lennie Small, Slim, Candy, Curley
Name works by James Baldwin.
Go Tell It On the Mountain; Another Country; Giovanni's Room; Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone; Just Above My Head; The Price of the Ticket
Name important works by Margaret Mitchell.
Gone with the Wind; Lost Laysen
Name important works by Philip Roth.
Goodbye Columbus; Portnoy's Complaint; Zuckerman Bound; The Counterlife
Name important works by Grace Paley.
Goodbye and Good Luck; The Used-Boy Raisers
Describe the plot in Young Goodman Brown.
Goodman Brown enters a forest at night to run an errand. He sees a guy that looks just like himself as well as an old woman named Goody Cloyse. He eventually enters a clearing to see all the townspeople gathered in some sort of ceremony. He reunites with his wife, Faith, and calls out to heaven. After this dream or event, Goodman is not sure, his view of life changes.
Name characters in Young Goodman Brown,
Goodman Brown, Faith, and Goody Cloyse
Name works by Toni Cade Bambara.
Gorilla, My Love (1972) which includes "Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird"
Name an important work by John Gardner.
Grendel
Name a novel by John Gardner.
Grendel (1971)
Name writers who incorporated ideas of social Darwinism (survival of the fittest and natural selection) into their writing.
H.G. Wells, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser
Describe the plot in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?
Hank Morgan finds himself transported back to England's Dark Ages where he is immediately captured and sentenced to death at Camelot. He is able to save his life with his quick-wittedness and becomes a celebrity.
Name characters from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
Hank, Clarence, Sandy, King Arthur, Merlin
What literary movement is James Weldon Johnson part of?
Harlem Renaissance
Which literary movement is Langston Hughes part of?
Harlem Renaissance
With which literary movement is Claude McKay associated?
Harlem Renaissance
With which literary movement is Jean Toomer associated?
Harlem Renaissance
How did Ezra Pound's personal life play out for him?
He became extreme in his views (anti-American, anti-Jewish, pro-fascist, pro-Nazi). He was convicted of treason at end of World War II. He spent time in mental hospital and later spent his last lonely years in Italy.
What did Walt Whitman contribute to the literary world?
He created new poetic forms and subjects. He rejected conventional themes, traditional literary references, allusions, and rhyme.
For what is Patrick Henry most famous? What was the purpose of his prose?
He is best known for his speech at the Virginia Convention on March 20, 1775. He tried to persuade the convention members to take up arms against the growing British military threat.
Who was Josiah Warren?
He is considered America's first Anarchist. He served as editor of America's first anarchist weekly paper, the Peaceful Revolutionist.
How has Raymond Chandler influenced American literature?
He is considered to be the founder of the hard-boiled school of detective fiction
Who is Arthur Miller?
He is the American playwrite who wrote The Crucible in 1953 which is a play about the Salem Witch Trials
What was unique about Jonathan Edward's place in history?
He straddled two ages: the modern secular world exemplified by such as men as Benjamin Franklin and the religious world of his zealous Puritan ancestors (like Mather)
What was unique about e.e. cummings poetry style?
He used a very eccentric style with unusual typography and spelling and deliberate misuse of grammatical structure.
What style of poetry did Walt Whitman use?
He used free verse, long lines to capture the rhythms of natural speech, and vocabulary drawn from everyday speech
What distinguishes Vachel Lindsay's poetry?
He used music and strong rhythm and blended facts with myths (singing poetry)
What is Arthur Miller's purpose for writing The Crucible?
He used the subject of the Salem Witch Trials as an allegory to McCarthyism - when the US government blacklisted accused communists.
How was Countee Cullen's writing style different from other black writers of his time?
He used traditional poetic forms rather than experimenting with jazz rhythms
What themes did e.e. cummings use in his poetry?
He used traditional themes like families, parents, children, and values. He extols individualism in a world of conformity.
Who was Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.?
He was a Fireside poet who was also a physician
What political beliefs did John Dos Passos hold?
He was a Lost Generation writer who initially believed in Communism until his friend was murdered by Soviet Secret Police during the Spanish Civil War
Who was James Russell Lowell?
He was a New England poet (Fireside group) who advocated the abolition of slavery.
Who was John Winthrop?
He was a Puritan who obtained a charter to establish the Massuchusetts Bay Colony in Salem and then the Boston area.
What is John Greenleaf Whittier known for?
He was a Quaker poet and an advocate for the abolition of slavery.
Who was Alexander Berkman?
He was a Russian born immigrant to the US who was an anarchist. He served prison time for attempting to assassinate a businessman. While in prison he wrote "Prison Memoir of an Anarchist." He was later deported to Russian and wrote "The Bolshevik Myth." He was also an editor of the Mother Earth Journal
Who was Zane Grey?
He was a dentist who wrote adventure novels and stories associated with the western genre. He idealized the western frontier.
Who was Jonathan Edwards?
He was a preacher during the Great Awakening (1720 -1740) who preached the famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
Who was Roger Williams?
He was a protestant theologian who advocated the separation of church and state and complete religious toleration. After getting kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he founded Providence, Rhode Island.
Who was Olaudah Equiano?
He was an African who wrote about the journey across the Atlantic to Barbados (the Middle Passage)
Who was W.E.B Du Bois?
He was an African-American writer who founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Who is August Wilson? (playwright)
He was an American playwright who wrote a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle. Each work in the series is set in a different decade, and depicts comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the twentieth century.
Who was William Byrd?
He was born into a wealthy Virginia family who afforded him education in England. He was a representative of the Southern writers who lived a truly Renaissance style life. He was the perfect representative of the southern genteel class.
In what style did Bret Harte write?
He was considered a local colorist who wrote about the wild west. He featured gamblers, miners, robbers and other romantic characters during the California gold rush. His works inspired our wild west films.
What interests did Booker T. Washington have?
He was interested in the integration of whites and blacks. He was especially interested in education. His ideas were presented in his famous Atlanta Exposition Address
What distinction did Richard Wright earn as a writer?
He was the first African-American author whose work appeared on the national best-seller lists.
What distinction does Edward Taylor receive in American literature?
He was the only major American poet to have written in the metaphysical style.
For what type of writing is Samuel Sewall known?
He wrote a diary that gives entertaining glimpses of social and political life in the early 1700's.
On what things did Captain John Smith write?
He wrote about the bounty that America offered often to exaggerated proportion: large amounts of fish and produce, especially pleasant, easy living, etc. He wrote about his travel adventures.
What themes did John Cheever use in his writing?
He wrote about the lives of the upper-class suburban professionals trapped by circumstances - marriages, jobs, possessions.
What did Langston Hughes focus on unlike his black American contemporaries?
He wrote about the rich heritage of black people and expressed their pride and determination rather than on injustice
What type of stories did Horatio Alger, Jr. write?
He wrote rags to riches stories about young boys. His novels champion the virtues of industry, honesty, frugality, charity, delayed gratification, bravery, self control, and self improvement.
This quote comes from where: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn."
Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa"
Name the characters of Red Badge of Courage.
Henry Fleming, Jim Conklin, Wilson, The Tattered Soldier, Mrs. Fleming
Who wrote Daisy Miller?
Henry James
Who wrote The Turn of the Screw?
Henry James
Name the Fireside poets.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; William Cullen Bryant; John Greenleaf Whittier; James Russell Lowell; Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Name characters in The House of the Seven Gables.
Hepzibah Pyncheon, Holgrave, Phoebe Pyncheon, Alice Pyncheon, Matthew Maule...
Why is Sarah Kemble Knight's "My Journey from Boston to New York" important?
Her diary gives a first-hand account of travel conditions in Connecticut during colonial times. It gives insight into the manners, speech, housing, and transportation of the times.
Why weren't Emily Dickinson's poems accepted in her day?
Her poems did not look like poems were supposed to look; they did not rhyme; her figures of speech were too striking; her ideas too radical
Which American author was said to have lived with cannibals?
Herman Melville
Describe the plot of "The Scarlett Letter."
Hester Prynne has a child (Pearl) from an adulterous relationship. She is punished and has to wear a letter "A" at all times. Her husband, from whom she is estranged, strikes up a relationship with the child's father who remains a mystery until the end. Puritan values and sin are intertwined.
Name characters in The Scarlet Letter.
Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, Governor Richard Bellingham, Pearl
What was William Faulkner's primary subject?
His Southern heritage (Mississippi) - Yoknapatawpha County; black codes and guilt of slavery
What type of lifestyle did William Byrd reveal in his writing? How did this contrast with the New England lifestyle?
His diaries record a life of pleasures and practical concerns of a man of the world: dinners, flirtations with women, literature, natural science. New Englanders, on the other hand, were more concerned with casting off such lures and sources of temptations. They focused on the spiritual relationship with God.
What inspired Herman Melville's Typee?
His experience of escaping a whaling ship and living on the island of Nuku Hiva (part of Marquesas Islands) in the Pacific Ocean amongst cannibals.
What topic did Edward Taylor use?
His poetry emphasizes self-examination particularly in his relations to God. He was a second generation Puritan.
What impact did Olaudah's writing have on the world?
His work was instrumental in bringing the atrocity of slavery to the attention of the public. It helped fuel the abolitionist movement.
Who is the main character in The Catcher in the Rye?
Holden Caulfield
Name novels and short stories written by Claude McKay.
Home to Harlem; Banjo; Gingertown; Banana Bottom; Harlem: A Negro Metropolis
Name works by Julia Alvarez.
Homecoming; How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents; In the Time of the Butterflies
Name works by N. Scott Momaday.
House Made of Dawn; The Way to Rainy Mountain
What is the main theme of the play Counterfit Presentment?
Howells uses comedy to reveal the deeper issue of the plight of unmarried middle and upper class women in the 19th century.
Name works by Allen Ginsberg.
Howl; Empty Mirror; Kaddish and Other Poems; Wales - A Visitation
Name the characters in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Jim, Pap, The Widow Douglas and her sister Miss Watson, The Duke and the King, the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, and Aunt Polly
Name characters in Life in the Iron Mills.
Hugh Wolfe, Deborah Wolfe, Janey and Mr. Clark.
Name Richard Rodriguez's important work.
Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
Name an important work by Edward Taylor.
Huswifery; Preparatory Meditations; God's Determinations Touching His Elect.
Name important works by Maya Angelou.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Gather Together in My Name; The Heart of a Woman; All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
What is the plot of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?"
Ichabod Crane wants to marry Katrina Van Tassel but he must compete with local Abraham Van Brunt for her hand. One night he meets up with a headless horsemen who is thought to be a ghost of a Hessian soldier from the Revolutionary war. Ichabod mysteriously disappears.
Name characters from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Ichabod Crane, Gunpowder (horse), Katrina Van Tassel, Mynheer Van Tassel, the Headless Horseman, Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt
Name famous works by Truman Capote.
In Cold Blood; Breakfast at Tiffany's
What is the plot of The Turn of the Screw?
In an old house on Christmas eve, friends gather to tell ghost stories. Douglas says that he has a scary story to read that a governess had written about ghosts she had seen.
What is Flannery O' Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" about?
In this short story, a family travels from Georgia to Florida for a vacation. After surviving a tragic car accident, the entire family is murdered by a criminal called "The Misfit".
Name a works by Ralph Ellison.
Invisible Man; Shadow and Act; Going to the Territory
Describe the plot of Moby Dick.
Ishmael goes on a whaling expedition. Captain Ahab decides to seek revenge on the infamous white whale, Moby Dick, that bit off his leg years ago.
Name characters in Moby Dick.
Ishmael, Captain Ahab, Starbuck, Queequeg, Captain Boomer, Stubb, Elijah
From where does this line come: "...the shot heard round the world?"
It comes from the first stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn
What impact did the Common Sense pamphlet have on history?
It encouraged/inspired colonists to break from Britain
What is Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" about?
It focuses on the lives of black women in the 1930's in rural Georgia. It uses many controversial topics.
What is Song of Solomon about?
It follows the lives of a black family (the Deads) and their friends living in the American Midwest.
What is "Innocents Abroad" about?
It is Mark Twain's travel book about his trip to Europe and the Holy Lands.
What is "A Fable for Critics" about?
It is a book-length poem that makes fun of well-known poets and critics of the time
What is "The Devil's Dictionary?"
It is a collection of words and phrases defined in a satirical way by Ambrose Bierce. These were amusing definitions he submitted to magazines over 30 years.
What is the definition of an autobiography?
It is a firsthand account of a writer's own life
What is the Atlantic Monthly?
It is a magazine founded in 1857 which published the works of many significant writers - Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Fireside Poets, as well as many abolitionist writers. James Russell Lowell was the first editor. The magazine is still publishing today.
What is John Gardner's "Grendel" about?
It is a modern retelling of the story of Beowulf from the point of view of the monster, Grendel, the villain of the 8th-century Anglo-Saxon epic poem.
What is "A Model of Christian Charity" about? What important idea was mentioned?
It is a sermon that may have been preached on the ship crossing the Atlantic. John Winthrop preached about establishing an ideal Christian city in the new world. This city would be a "City on a Hill" because it would serve as an example to people around the world of what a proper Christian city is like.
What is Desiree's Baby about?
It is a short story by Kate Chopin about mixing of the races in Creole Louisiana
What is a conceit?
It is a startling extended metaphor that makes a surprising, even shocking, connection between two different things.
What is This Side of Paradise about?
It is a story about the coming of age of Amory Blaine, a handsome and wealthy Princeton student.
What is the subject of Mary Rowlandson's famous writing?
It is about her captivity by native Americans during King Philips War in 1675
What is Paterson about?
It is an epic poem consisting of five volumes of poetry which is dedicated to the city of Paterson, NJ.
What is the plot of Look Homeward, Angel?
It is believed to be autobiographical and that the character Eugene Gant is based on Wolfe himself. This novel presents the story of a young man growing up in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina during the early part of the 20th century. The setting Altamont, Catawba, is a fictionalization of Wolfe's home town, Asheville, North Carolina.
What impact on America did Uncle Tom's Cabin have?
It is considered one of the many factors that fueled the Civil War.
What is the criticism of John Neihardt's book Black Elk Speaks?
It is criticized because it was written by a non-native (white man) who interviewed Lakota Natives. His story does not reflect the beliefs of the Lakota Natives and he may have exaggerated the facts to sensationalize the story line.
Describe the story of Black Elk Speaks.
It is the story about Nicholas Black Elk an Oglala medicine man as he tells about the Lakota Indians' experience with American expansion into the Dakotas.
Describe the plot of As I Lay Dying.
It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family's quest and motivations - noble or selfish - to honor her wish to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi.
What is the theme of Waste-Land?
It portrays the American and European postwar sense of tragedy and despair. The war caused people to abandon their spiritual roots. This epic poem loosely follows the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King.
What is "All the King's Men" about?
It portrays the corruption of an idealistic politician, Willie Stark, in the American South during the 1930s. The fictional character Stark, is believed to have been modeled on real life politician Huey Long (1893-1935), governor of Louisiana.
What is the plot of McTeague, a Story of San Francisco
It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and greed.
Describe the plot of James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On the Mountain."
It tells the story of a teenage boy named John Grimes and his relationship to his family and his church. The novel also reveals back stories on his mother, biological father, and his abusive and harsh step-father. The novel is semi-autobiographical.
What is imagism?
It was a literary movement that flourished from 1912 to 1917. It was led by Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell. The movement sought clarity of expression through the use of precise images. It used ordinary language, free verse, concentrated word pictures, very specific words & phrases
What was the purpose of "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd?"
It was a poem written by Walt Whitman as an elegy to Abraham Lincoln a few weeks after his assassination
What is the Hull House?
It was a settlement house in Chicago, Il. It was a place where middle-class volunteers could share knowledge with and thereby improve the lives of low-income neighbors.
What is Thoreau's "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" about?
It was a travel account of the Thoreau's boat trip from Concord, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire partly as a tribute to his brother's death from tetanus
What was A History of New York about?
It was about the beginnings of New York. It contained facts interspersed with exaggeration, burlesque and biting sarcasm.
What was the "History of the Plymouth Plantation" about?
It was an eye-witness account of the Pilgrim's journey to the New World, the hardships they encountered there, and their daily faith in God to supply their needs.
What was the purpose of "O Captain! My Captain?"
It was poem written by Walt Whitman to memorialize Lincoln
What is the plot of the House of the Seven Gables?
It's a Gothic story about a house built by the Pyncheon family on land unlawfully seized from Matthew Maule. The land owner was accused of witchcraft and murdered. Before Matthew Maule died, he placed a curse on the Pyncheon family. The family suffered subsequent deaths and depression.
What is "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" about?
It's a play about a married couple whose marriage is breaking down. They talk about their life with a younger couple in a very animated and emotional format. Reality and illusion are confused.
What is John Barth's "The Floating Opera" about?
It's about a first-person account of the day protagonist Todd Andrews contemplated suicide.
What is the Catcher in the Rye about?
It's about a teenage boy who has been expelled from several schools. He is about to be admitted to a mental hospital but stays a few days in New York City calling and visiting different people. The boy narrates his encounters.
Who wrote The Call of the Wild?
Jack London
Name main characters in The Sun Also Rises.
Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, Mike Campbell, Count Mippipolopolous, Frances Clyne, Pedro Romero
Who wrote "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men?"
James Agee (journalist) and Walker Evans (photographer)
Name the humorist writers.
James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Will Rogers, The Marx Brothers
Name characters from O' Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
James Tyrone, Mary Tyrone, Jamie Tyrone, Edmund Tyrone, Eugene Tyrone
Name the characters in The Yellow Wallpaper?
Jane (the woman in the room), Jennie, John (Jane's husband) , Mary
Who is the main character in Zora Neal Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God?"
Janie Crawford
With which group of writers is Bernard Malamud associated?
Jewish-American
With which group of writers is Elie Wiesel associated?
Jewish-American
With which group of writers is Erica Jong associated?
Jewish-American
With which group of writers is Isaac Bashevis Singer associated?
Jewish-American
With which group of writers is Norman Mailer associated?
Jewish-American
With which group of writers is Philip Roth associated?
Jewish-American
With which group of writers is Saul Bellow associated?
Jewish-American
Name characters in Go Tell It On the Mountain.
John Grimes, Elizabeth (mother), Gabriel (step-father), Florence (sister)
Name characters in Bromfield's "Early Autumn."
John Pentland, Cassie (John's sister), Miss Peavey (Cassie's friend), Anson Pentland (John's son), Olivia Pentland (Anson's wife), Agnes Pentland (John's insane wife), Sabine (John's niece)
What is a "History of New England" about and who wrote it?
John Winthrop wrote a journal recording the daily experiences of the Puritans who set sail to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He began writing it on the ship. This document is the counterpart to William Bradford's journal on the Mayflower and the Plymouth Colony.
Name works by William Burroughs.
Junky, Queer, Naked Lunch
Name characters in The Jungle.
Jurgis Rudkis, Ona Rudkis, Marija, Teta... (The family immigrated from Lithuania)
Who wrote The Awakening?
Kate Chopin
Where was the setting of Uncle Tom's Cabin?
Kentucky and Louisiana
With which group of writers is Denise Chavez associated?
Latino-American
With which group of writers is Julia Alvarez associated?
Latino-American
With which group of writers is Richard Rodriguez associated?
Latino-American
With which group of writers is Sandra Cisneros associated?
Latino-American
Name characters in The Gilded Age.
Laura Hawkins, Philip Sterling, Henry Brierly, Ruth Bolton and Colonel Beriah Sellers
In what book is most of Walt Whitman's works included?
Leaves of Grass
What did J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur write?
Letters From an American Farmer
Name a work by Rebecca Harding Davis.
Life in the Iron Mills (1861)
What is the plot of The House of Mirth?
Lily Barton is looking to marry into wealth to continue the lifestyle into which she was born. She is getting older and her prospects run out. She ends up poor and kills herself.
Name characters in The House of Mirth.
Lily Barton, Lawrence Seldon, Simon Rosedale, Percy Gryce, Bertha Dorset, Mrs. Peniston; Judy and Augustus Trenor
Name works by Louisa May Alcott.
Little Women (1868); Little Men; Jo's Boys
Name important works by Vladimir Nabokov.
Lolita; Speak, Memory; The Defense; The Gift; Pnin
Name works by Eugene O'Neill. (playwright)
Long Day's Journey Into Night (drama); Hairy Ape (drama); The Iceman Cometh (drama)
Name important works by Thomas Wolfe.
Look Homeward, Angel; Of Time and the River; You Can't Go Home Again; The Web and the Rock
Name works by Robert Lowell.
Lord Weary's Castle; In Life Studies; For the Union Dead
Name main characters in Farewell to Arms.
Lt Frederic Henry, Catherine Barkley, Rinaldi, The Priest, Helen Ferguson
Who was Samuel Sewall courting in his diary entries in 1720?
Madam Winthrop, the widow of John Winthrop
Describe the plot of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.
Maggie had a rough upbringing and her life spirals ever downward when she hooks up with Pete. Her family disowns her.
Name the characters in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.
Maggie, Jimmy (Maggie's brother), Mary (Maggie's mother), Pete (Jimmy's friend), Nellie
Name Stephen Crane's most famous works.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets; The Red Badge of Courage, The Open Boat; The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
What is considered the first work of naturalism in American fiction?
Maggie; A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
Name an important work by Cotton Mather.
Magnalia Christi Americana; Pillars of Salt; Wonders of the Invisible World.
Name works by Sinclair Lewis.
Main Street; Babbitt; Arrowsmith; Dodsworth
Name works by Hamlin Garland.
Main- Travelled Roads; Prairie Folks; Jason Edwards
Who wrote the Prince and the Pauper?
Mark Twain
Who wrote: "It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
Mark Twain
Name characters in "Who's Afraid of Virginian Woolf."
Martha, George, Nick, Honey
Name Asian-American writers.
Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Gus Lee, David Wong Louie, Gish Jen
Name a famous work by Frank Norris.
McTeague, a Story of San Francisco
Name characters in Song of Solomon.
Milkman Dead, Pilate Dead, Macon Dead, Hagar Dead, Guitar Bains
Describe the plot of James' "Wings of the Dove."
Milly Theale and American heiress is striken with a terminal disease. People befriend her for honorable motives or for self-seeking motives. Kate Croy tries to arrange for Milly to marry her boyfriend, Merton Densher, so that when Milly dies, she and Merton can live happily ever after with massive wealth.
Name characters in the Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Miriam, Hilda, Kenyon, Donatello
Name works by Herman Melville.
Moby Dick; Bartleby the Scrivener; Typee; Omoo; Mardi; White Jacket; Billie Bud, Sailor
Name characters in The Cask of Amontillado.
Montresor and Fortunato
Name two plays that T.S. Eliot wrote.
Murder in the Cathedral; The Cocktail Party
Name Willa Cather's most important novels.
My Antonia; Death Comes for the Archbishop
Name works by Willa Cather.
My Antonia; Death Comes for the Archbishop; O Pioneers!; The Song of the Lark; One of Ours
Name four Native-American writers.
N. Scott Momaday, William Heat Least Moon, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Louise Erdrich
Describe the plot of The Cask of Amontillado.
Narrator Montresor tells of a time fifty years ago when he walled a friend, Fortunato, into an alcove hidden in a wine cellar. He plotted to do this when his friend would be drunk at Carnival.
Where are most of Kate Chopin's stories based?
Natchitoches, LA
Name important works by Richard Wright.
Native Son; Black Boy; The Outsider; Savage Holiday; Black Power; The Color Curtain; White Man Listen!; The Long Dream
With which group is William Heat Least Moon associated?
Native-American
With which group of writers is Leslie Marmon Silko associated?
Native-American
With which group of writers is Louise Erdrich associated?
Native-American
With which group of writers is Natachee Scott Momaday associated?
Native-American
Who is the main character in the Leatherstocking Tales?
Natty Bumppo aka Hawkeye, Deerslayer, Leatherstocking
Name characters in the Deerslayer.
Natty Bumppo, Chingachgook, Hurry Harry March, Tom Hutter, Judith Hutter, Hetty Hutter, Hist-ho!-Hist, Captain Warley, Rivernoak
Name characters in The Last of the Mohicans.
Natty Bumppo, Chingachgook, Uncas, Major Duncan Heyward, Magua, Cora Munro, Alice Munro, Colonel Munro
With which literary movement is Stephen Crane associated?
Naturalism - he is considered one of the first
Name famous works by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Nature; Self-Reliance; The American Scholar (speech); The Divinity School Address; Hymn sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument (Concord Hymn); The Over-Soul
What is the plot for Age of Innocence?
Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland but becomes smitten with Countess Ellen Olenska (May's cousin). He marries May but continues his love interest in Ellen.
Name the main characters in Age of Innocence.
Newland Archer, May Welland, Countess Ellen Olenska
Name characters in The Great Gatsby.
Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan, Tom Buchanan, Myrtle Wilson, Dr. T.J. Eckleberg (billboard)
Describe the plot of The Great Gatsby.
Nick, a would-be writer, moves in next-door to millionaire Jay Gatsby and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering husband, Tom. Jay Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy.
Name works by Elie Wiesel.
Night
What is Willa Cather's "prairie trilogy?"
O Pioneers; Song of the Lark; My Antonia
What is the plot of The Crying of Lot 49?
Oedipa Maas learns about a series of secret societies and strange groups of people involved in a sort of renegade postal system called Tristero. She starts noticing cryptic diagrams of a simple horn everywhere she goes, a symbol with a seemingly infinite number of meanings. Every clue she uncovers about Tristero and the horn leads to another.
Name characters in The Crying of Lot 49.
Oedipa Maas, Pierce Inverarity, Wendell Mucho Maas, Metzger, Dr. Hilarius
Name works by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
Old Ironsides; Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table;
Name works by Jack Kerouac.
On the Road; The Dharma Bums; The Subterranean; Doctor Sax; Lonesome Traveler; Desolation Angels; Visions of Cody
"...but as for me, give me liberty or give me death" are lines from what?
Patrick Henry used these words to close his persuasive speech at the Virginia Convention in 1775.
Name works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Paul Revere's Ride; The Song of Hiawatha; Evangeline; The Seaside and the Fireside; The Courtship of Miles Standish
Name characters in Bluest Eye.
Pecola Breedlove, Polly, Cholly, Sam, Auntie Jimmy, the Fishers and Geraldine.
Describe the plot of Toni Morrison's "Bluest Eye."
Pecola Breedlove, a black girl, wishes she had blue eyes and blonde hair so she would be accepted. She endures tragedy, suffers a mental breakdown and is left believing she has blue eyes.
Name works by Gertrude Stein.
Picasso; The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas; Tender Buttons and Three Lives
Name works by Robert Benchley.
Pluck and Luck; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; David Copperfield; From Bad to Worse, or Confronting the Bison; My Ten Years in a Quandary, Or How They Grew
Name a work by Vladimir Nabokov.
Pnin (1957)
Name works by Benjamin Franklin.
Poor Richard's Almanac, Autobiography
Name characters in James's "Golden Bowl."
Prince Amerigo, Maggie Verver, Adam Verver, Charlotte Stant
What is the theme of Prufrock?
Prufrock is too emotionally timid to love and communicate with women. He lacks confidence and is unable to break out of isolation
Name best known works by John Updike.
Rabbit Run; Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest; Rabbit Remembered;
Name works by Horatio Alger, Jr.
Ragged Dick - Street Life in New York; Do and Dare - A Brave Boy's Fight for Fortune; and The Match Boy
Name African American writers after World War II.
Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid
Who wrote a piece discussing the human soul? What thoughts were included about the human soul? What influenced the writer's thoughts on the subject?
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote "The Over-Soul." Themes include: 1) the existence and nature of the soul 2) the relationship of the soul with the personal ego (self) 3) the relationship of the soul with others 4) the relationship of the soul with God. He was influenced by eastern and western religions as well as by Plato.
From where does this line come? "A foolish consistency is the hemogloblin of little minds adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Self-Reliance"
Name the core transcendental writers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller
Name works by Dashiell Hammett.
Red Harvest; The Maltese Falcon; The Thin Man; The Dain Curse (all hard-boiled detective stories)
Name works by Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Renascence and Other Poems; A Few Figs From Thistles; Aria da Capo.
Name characters in The Crucible.
Reverend Samuel Parris, Betty Parris, Tituba, Susanna Walcott, Ann Putnam, John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Judge John Hathorne, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend John Hale, Giles Corey, and Thomas Putnam.
Who wrote the Bay Psalm Book?
Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, John Eliot
Name a few celebrated Latino-American writers.
Richard Rodriguez, Denise Chavez, Julia Alvarez, and Sandra Cisneros
Name African American writers.
Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Claude McKay, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Charles Waddell Chesnutt, Booker T. Washington
Name a famous work by Zane Grey.
Riders of the Purple Sage
In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention met to discuss what?
Rights of women. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were there.
What is the plot of Rip Van Winkle?
Rip helps villagers with odd jobs but does very little for his family. His wife nags him constantly. On a hike with his dog, Wolf, in the mountains, Rip drinks some alcohol and falls asleep for 20 years. He awakens after America has become an independent nation. He reunites with his now grown son and daughter.
What analogy can be made between the Rip Van Winkle story and American independence?
Rip's nagging wife symbolizes Britain. The 20 years of sleep symbolize the time period of the changes going on in America during the Revolutionary War and establishment of a constitution. The awakening Rip now has to realize and learn about living in this new country without the constraints of Britain.
Who wrote this line: "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." ?
Robert Frost
Name characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Robert Jordan, El Sordo, Pilar, Maria...
Name characters in the short story Fall of the House of Usher.
Roderick Usher, Madeline Usher, Narrator
Who was the first advocate of complete religious toleration and separation of church and state in America?
Roger Williams
What type/style of writer was Washington Irving?
Romantic
Name characters in "A Raisin in the Sun."
Ruth Younger (mother), Walter Lee Younger (father), Lena Younger (grandmother), Beneatha Younger (daughter), Travis Younger (son), Karl Lindner (white guy who is spokesperson for the white community), Mrs. Johnson (the Younger's neighbor who tries to warn them about moving)
What was Mark Twain's birth name?
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Who wrote the first antislavery tract in America? What was it entitled? What year was it published?
Samuel Sewall wrote "The Selling of Joseph" which was published in 1700.
Name the main characters in Old Man in the Sea.
Santiago, Manolin, Perico, Martin, Joe DiMaggio
What is the name of the literary element for William Byrd's ironic, barbed approach in his writing? Give the definition for this literary term.
Satire is a type of writing that ridicules the short-comings of people or institutions, usually in an attempt to bring about change.
Name famous Jewish-American writers.
Saul Bellow, Erica Jong, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, I.B. Singer, Elie Wiesel, Henry Roth
Describe the plot in Bromfield's "Early Autumn."
Set in fictional Durham, Massachusetts shortly after WWI. The upper class in the town is being replaced by nouveau riche who have different values. The Pentland family can trace their roots back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony so they are dismayed at the Catholics moving into the area.
With what is Abigail Adams credited?
She campaigned for women's rights and gave us a fascinating look at life in the Revolutionary period through letters to her husband - President John Adams
How are Emily Dickinson's poems titled?
She gave her poems no titles so the publishers used the first line of the poem as the title or gave them numbers.
Who is Margaret Fuller?
She is considered the first femininist, is associated with Transcendentalism, and was the first editor of Dial Magazine
What was the general theme of Mary Rowlandson's narrative?
She recorded her travels and life as a hostage with the native Americans while keeping God as her source of survival and inspiration during the nearly 12 weeks of extreme trial.
What is especially noteworthy about Sarah Kemble Knight's journey?
She took a journey not normally taken by women
How does Emily Dickinson's poems look different from other poems of her day?
She used a lot of dashes, exclamation marks, not much other punctuation; She capitalized certain words to emphasize them. She gave her poems no titles.
Who is Sarah Kemble Knight?
She was a resident of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who made a five month journey to New York and back in 1704 - 1705.
Who is Jane Addams?
She was an activist, sociologist, author, and leader in both the women's suffrage and settlement house movements. She founded the Hull House in Chicago and wrote about the experience in her book "Twenty Years at Hull House."
What was Zora Neal Hurston's special ability as a writer?
She was gifted in the ability to write in rural southern dialect
Name a special distinction that Phillis Wheatley earned in American literature.
She was the first African American to be published
What is Sarah Kemble Knight known for writing? What year did the event occur? What is the assumed title of the piece?
She wrote a diary of her five month journey from Boston to New York and back in 1704 - 1705. It was published as "The Journal of Madame Knight" in 1825.
What topics did Anne Bradstreet write about?
She wrote poems about the love for her husband and family life as a Puritan. Some of the topics included adversities she faced in her life like her house burning down, illnesses, and deaths.
Name important works by Bobbie Ann Mason.
Shiloh and Other Stories; In Country
Name important works by Katherine Ann Porter.
Ship of Fools; Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Describe the plot of The Rise of Silas Lapham.
Silas Lapham makes a fortune in the paint business after the Civil War. He moves from Vermont to Boston and tries to transform his financial success into social status.
Name characters in The Rise of Silas Lapham.
Silas Lapham, Persis Lapham (Silas' wife), Penelope Lapham (older daughter), Irene Lapham (younger daughter), Bromfield Corey, Anna Corey, and Tom Corey.
Name a short story by Conrad Aiken.
Silent Snow, Secret Snow (1934) (short story)
From what literature sources was Washington Irving inspired?
Sir Walter Scott (Scottish Romantic novelist) and German Romantics (folklore and legends)
Name novels written by Theodore Dreisser.
Sister Carrie, An American Tragedy, The Financier, The Titan, The Genius, The Stoic, The Bulwark, Jennie Gerhardt
What is the plot of Henry Roth's "Call It Sleep?"
Six year old David and his mother, Genya, travel to New York to be with his father, Albert. Albert is cold to them. As the story unfolds, we learn that Albert may not be David's father. Later in the story, David tries to kill himself by touching an electrified train track. In the end, his mother and father appear remorseful and compassionate towards David.
Name an important work by John Greenleaf Whittier.
Snow-Bound
Name famous works by Walt Whitman.
Song of Myself; I Sing the Body Electric; A Noiseless Patient Spider; When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd; Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Rocking; O Captain! My Captain!
Name poems by Claude McKay.
Songs of Jamaica; Harlem Shadows
What literary movement was Truman Capote part of?
Southern Gothic
Name the important work by Edgar Lee Masters?
Spoon River Anthology
Name important works by William Carlos Williams.
Spring and All; The Desert Music and Other Poems; Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems; The Red Wheel Barrel; Paterson
Who wrote The Open Boat?
Stephen Crane
Who wrote The Red Badge of Courage?
Stephen Crane
Name the first four naturalist writers.
Stephen Crane, Jack London, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser
Name an important work by James T. Farrell.
Studs Lonigan trilogy
Name famous poems by Emily Dickinson.
Success is Counted Sweetest; Wild Nights; Because I Could not stop for Death
Name works by Margaret Fuller.
Summer on the Lake; Woman in the 19th Century; Papers on Literature and Art
Name the "confessional" poets.
Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell
Name important works by James Michener.
Tales of the South Pacific; Hawaii; The Drifters; Centennial; The Source; The Fires of Spring
What is the setting for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow?"
Tarrytown, NY in 1790 in a dutch hamlet.
Describe the plot in The Sound and the Fury.
Tells the same story (dissolution of their family) through four different viewpoints: three brothers and their black servant, Dilsey
List some virtues that Benjamin Franklin felt were necessary to arrive at moral perfection.
Temperance, Silence, Order, Frugality, Industry, Resolution, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, Humility
What famous work did William Cullen Bryant write?
Thanatopsis (poem)
Name the works in John Dos Passos's "USA Trilogy."
The 42nd Parallel; Nineteen Nineteen; The Big Money
Name an important work by Margaret Wilson.
The Able McLaughlins
Name Mark Twain's most famous books.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi; The Prince and the Pauper; and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Name America's first magazines?
The American Magazine (Andrew Bradford) and General Magazine, and Historical Chronical (Benjamin Franklin)
What did James Weldon Johnson write?
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man as well as the National Negro Anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing"; God's Trombones
Name Gwendolyn Brooks' most famous poems.
The Bean Eaters; We Real Cool
Name poems by Hart Crane.
The Bridge; For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen; Voyages
Name Jack London's most famous books.
The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and the Sea Wolf
Name J.D. Salinger's famous work.
The Catcher in the Rye
Name Mark Twain's famous short story.
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
What brought the end to American Romanticism and what replaced it?
The Civil War. It was replaced by the Age of Realism
Name important works by Alice Walker.
The Color Purple; The Third Life of Grange Copeland; Meridian; The Temple of My Familiar; Possessing the Secret of Joy
Name an important work by Vachel Lindsay.
The Congo
What did Charles Waddell Chesnutt write?
The Conjure Woman; The Wife of His Youth; The Marrow of Tradition; The House Behind the Cedars
Name works by Will Rogers.
The Cowboy Philosopher on Prohibition; Will Rogers' Political Follies
Name works by Arthur Miller. (playwright)
The Crucible; Death of a Salesman; All My Sons; After the Fall
Name books by Thomas Pynchon.
The Crying of Lot 49 (1966); Gravity's Rainbow (1973)
Name works by Saul Bellow.
The Dangling Man; The Victim; The Adventures of Augie March; Henderson the Rain King; Seize the Day; Mr. Sammler's Planet
Name the most famous work by Thomas Jefferson.
The Declaration of Independence
Name works by Ellen Glasgow.
The Descendant; Phases of an Inferior Planet; The Voice of People
What can William Bradford be considered the "Father of" in American literature?
The Father of American History
Name a work by Betty Friedan.
The Feminine Mystique (1963)
Name a novel by John Barth.
The Floating Opera (1956)
This book presents a satire of political corruption and greed in Washington, DC. It focuses on the lust for getting rich through land speculation.
The Gilded Age by Mark Twain AND Charles Dudley Warner
Name famous works by Tennessee Williams. (playwright)
The Glass Menagerie; A Streetcar Named Desire; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Sweet Bird of Youth
Name works by Carson McCullers.
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; Reflections in a Golden Eye; The Member of the Wedding; The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
In which writing is the first Thanksgiving documented?
The History of the Plymouth Plantation
What theme does Elie Wiesel write about?
The Holocaust and Jewish concentration camps during World War II
Name books by Edith Wharton.
The House of Mirth; The Age of Innocence; Ethan Frome; The Reef; The Custom of the Country; Summer
Name works by Sandra Cisneros.
The House on Mango Street; My Wicked, Wicked Ways
Name important works by Amy Tan.
The Joy Luck Club; The Kitchen God's Wife; The Moon Lady
Name works by Upton Sinclair.
The Jungle; World's End; and The Metropolis
Name works by Maria Cummins.
The Lamplighter; Mabel Vaughn
Name an important work by Denise Chavez.
The Last of the Menu Girls (a collection of short stories)
Name James Fenimore Cooper's most famous work.
The Leatherstocking Tales (a collection of five novels: The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie, the Pathfinder, The Deerslayer)
Name works by Frederick Douglass.
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass; My Bondage and My Freedom
Name important works by T.S. Eliot.
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock;" Preludes; The Waste-Land; The Hollow Men; Sweeney Among the Nightingales
Name notable works by Isaac Bashevis Singer.
The Magician of Lublin; A Day of Pleasure; Yentl; A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories; The Family Moscat
Name poems written by Edwin Arlington Robinson.
The Man Who Died Twice; Tristam; Luke Havergal; Richard Cory; Minnerver Cheevy; The Children of the Night, Dionysus in Doubt; Merlin.
Name works by William Bradford.
The Mayflower Compact; History of the Plymouth Plantation ("Of Plymouth Plantation")
Name works by William Dean Howells.
The Mouse Trap; The Rise of Silas Lapham; A Traveler from Altruria; A Counterfit Presentment; Christmas Every Day
Which story is considered to be the first detective story in America?
The Murders in Rue Morgue by Edgar Allen Poe
Name the three detective short stories Poe wrote in a series.
The Murders in the Rue Morgue; The Mystery of Marie Roget; The Purloined Letter
Name important works by Norman Mailer.
The Naked and the Dead; The Deer Park; The Armies of the Night; Miami and the Siege of Chicago; Of a Fire on the Moon; The Executioner's Song
Name the characters in The Celebrated Jumping From of Calaveras County.
The Narrator, Simon Wheeler, Jim Smiley, Dan'l Webster
Name important works written by Bernard Malamud.
The Natural; The Assistant; A New Life; Pictures of Fidelman; The Tenants; God's Grace; The Fixer; The Magic Barrel; Idiots First; Rembrandt's Hat
What is considered to be America's first educational textbook? When was it first published?
The New England Primer was published in 1687 - 1690 by printer Benjamin Harris who had escaped England under Catholic James II. This was during the Dominion of New England and its end with the Glorious Revolution
Name works by Bret Harte.
The Outcasts of Poker Flat; The Luck of Roaring Camp
Name an important work by Cynthia Ozick.
The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories
Name famous works by Edgar Allen Poe.
The Raven; Ulalume; The Bells; The Black Cat; The Fall of the House of Usher; The Pit and the Pendulum; The Tell Tale Heart; Annabel Lee; The Gold Bug; The Cask of Amontillado; The Purloined Letter
Name important works by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The Scarlet Letter; The House of the Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; Tanglewood Tales; Young Goodman Brown; The Marble Faun
Name important works by Washington Irving.
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (a collection of stories including "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle"); Bracebridge Hall; Tales of a Traveler (including "The Devil and Tom Walker"); History of the Life and Voyages of Columbus; Alhambra; Feathertop
What is considered to be Washington Irving's most successful work?
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
Name works by W.E.B Du Bois.
The Souls of Black Folk; Black Reconstruction in America; and The Crisis (NAACP's journal)
What is considered William Faulkner's masterpiece?
The Sound and the Fury
Name important works by William Faulkner.
The Sound and the Fury; Sartoris; As I Lay Dying; Sanctuary; Absolam, Absolam!; The Hamlet; Light in August; Go Down, Moses; The Big Sleep (screenplay)
Name James Fenimore Cooper's first important works.
The Spy; The Pioneers; The Pilot;
Name some works by Ernest Hemingway.
The Sun Also Rises; The Old Man and the Sea; A Farewell to Arms; For Whom the Bell Tolls; A Moveable Feast; Green Hills in Africa; Death in the Afternoon; The Snows of Kilimanjaro; The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
Name Anne Bradstreet's famous work.
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America
Name works by Tim O'Brien.
The Things They Carried; Going After Cacciato; If I Die in a Combat Zone
Name works by John Dos Passos
The U.S.A Trilogy (The 42nd Parallel, Nineteen Nineteen, The Big Money); One Man's Initiation; Manhattan Transfer; Three Soldiers; One Man's Initiation: 1917
Name works by John Cheever.
The Way Some People Live (collection of short stories); The Stories of John Cheever (collection of short stories); The Wapshot Chronicles; The Wapshot Scandal; Bullet Park; Falconer; Oh What a Paradise It Seems; The Enormous Radio; Goodbye, My Brother; The Five-Forty-Eight.
Name important works by Langston Hughes.
The Weary Blues; The Dream Keeper; Fields of Wonder; Montage of a Dream Deferred; The Ways of White Folks
Name works by Sarah Orne Jewett.
The White Heron; The Country of the Pointed Firs; A Country Doctor; Tales of New England
Name important works by Maxine Hong Kingston.
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1976); China Men; Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book
Name works by John Irving.
The World According to Garp; The Cider House Rules; A Prayer for Owen Meany; A Widow for One Year
What important work did Charlotte Perkins Gilman write?
The Yellow Wallpaper; In This Our World; The Home: Its Work and Influence"
Name works by Edward Albee (playwright)
The Zoo Story; The Sandbox; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?
What is The Feminine Mystique about?
The author writes about her belief that the concept of femininity has been mystified and forced on women. This causes women to lead unhappy lives. Furthermore, society is in denial of this condition and therefore has done nothing to provide help.
Who is Dr. T.J. Eckleberg in The Great Gatsby?
The doctor is not a human character in the book but is a billboard advertisement for Dr. Eckleberg, an optometrist.
From where does this famous quote come? "And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave... they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom."
The ending of Young Goodman Brown
What is the "Lost Generation?"
The generation that came of age during World War I (aka the World War I generation)
Describe the plot of Bartleby the Scrivener.
The main character works in a dead letter office of a business. He refuses to do his work and refuses to leave the building even when the business is sold. He dies in jail after going on a hunger strike.
What are some of the topics that William Byrd wrote about in the History of the Dividing Line?
The origins of the Jamestown settlement, the rough times in early Jamestown, interracial (natives with English) marriage, Indian religion, beginning of the Plymouth colony, beginning of the Massachusetts Bay colony, and all the history up to the writing of this story.
Describe the plot of Eugene O'Neill's play "Long Day's Journey Into Night."
The play covers one day in the life of the Tyrone family as they spend time together at the family cottage (Monte Cristo Cottage) in Connecticut. Deep-rooted tensions exist between all family members. The pain is made worse by the boldness with which each member expresses his or her feelings; and then there's the host of other challenges present: morphine and alcohol use, miserliness, sexual immorality, disease.
What is Gravity's Rainbow about?
The setting for this novel is Europe at the end of World War Two. It focuses on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, specifically, the quest undertaken by several characters to uncover the secret of a mysterious device named the "Schwarzgerat" ("black device"). It is a world of frightening realism and comic absurdity, all fueled by drug induced hallucinations, paranoid ramblings, and psychological investigations.
What is Invisible Man about?
The theme is black invisibility in an American society that willfully ignores blacks. The Invisible Man goes about his shallow and unfulfilling life. In the end he decides to embrace the philosophy of hope instead of rage and hopelessness. The author's ending enraged African Americans who insisted on the need to show blacks as victims.
What is the plot of "The Man that Was Used Up?"
The unnamed narrator seeks out heroic General John A.B.C. Smith to learn more about him. No one seems able to provide much information on him. There appears to be a secret to uncover. When the narrator finds him, he is in pieces on the floor and has to be assembled.
Name the main character in Song of the Lark.
Thea Kronborg (set in Colorado and Chicago)
Name works by Zora Neal Hurston.
Their Eyes Were Watching God; Jonah's Gourd Vine; Mules and Men; Dust Tracks on the Road
Who wrote An American Tragedy?
Theodore Dreisser
Who wrote Sister Carrie?
Theodore Dreisser
Who wrote "Old Rogaum and His Theresa" and what is the plot?
Theodore Dreisser. It is a short story about a German immigrant, Rogaum, who runs a butcher shop with his daughter, Theresa. His daughter and her friend spend their evenings with Connie and George, two womanizing men. One night Rogaum locks Theresa out of the house because she is late and she goes back out with Connie. Rogaum becomes concerned and looks for her. The police get involved.
What is the plot in Eugene O'Neill's drama "The Iceman Cometh"?
Theodore Hickman visits Harry Hope's saloon once a year to buy drinks for the patrons, but this year, 1912, he no longer uses alcohol and tries to convince the others to do the same with their lives.
Name works by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, and The Love of the Last Tycoon
What is Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa" about?
This book presents a nonfiction account of a safari Hemingway took in East Africa with his wife in 1933.
Describe the plot of Saul Bellow's "The Adventures of Augie March."
This coming of age novel tells the story of a poor Chicago boy growing up during the Great Depression. He travels around engaging in many activities such as stealing books, playing poker, joining the Merchant Marines during WWII, getting married, and making illegal business deals.
How did a group of writers get the name "Fireside Poets?"
This group of very popular New England writers wrote about domestic topics and messages of morality. Their stories and poems were read by families around the fire for entertainment.
What is an extended metaphor?
This is a figure of speech that developed throughout several lines or an entire work.
What is a simile?
This is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two very unlike things with the use of the word "like" or "as"
What is a metaphor?
This is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two very unlike things.
Describe the plot of Counterfit Presentment.
This is a play about a chance encounter between a young woman and a man she mistakes for her ex-lover
What is Crane's "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" about?
This is a western short story about Jake Potter a Texas marshal who is returning home to Yellow Sky with his bride from the east. Potter's nemesis, Scratchy Wilson, was planning on accosting him when he got off the train. He decided not to do it because Potter was unarmed.
Who was Geoffrey Crayon?
This is the pseudonym that Washington Irving used throughout his literary career
What is the book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" about?
This non-fiction book presents an in-depth exploration of the lives of three tenant farming families during the Great Depression.
What is the story line of The Joy Luck Club?
This story is about four Asian women who flee from China in the 1940's and their four very Americanized daughters. It's a story about the daughters learning to appreciate their heritage and the sacrifices their ancestors made.
What is the Abraham Lincoln Brigade? Which writers joined it?
This was a group of about 3000 Americans who defied US government to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Emma Goldman, Langston Hughes, and George Orwell.
Name characters in Absolam, Absolam!
Thomas Sutpen, Charles Bon, Rosa Coldfield, Quentin Compson, Shreve (Shrevlin), Henry Sutpen
A sample from Poor Richard's Almanac:
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead. Fish and visitors smell in three days. One today is worth two tomorrows.
What is Pnin about?
Timofey Pavlovich Pnin is a professor of Russian in the US. He is fussy, awkward, and usually clueless. His colleagues think he is a joke.
Name works by Anne Sexton.
To Bedlam and Part Way Back; All My Pretty Ones; Live or Die
Name important works by Harper Lee.
To Kill a Mockingbird; Go Set a Watchman
What was the purpose of the American Crisis pamphlet series?
To inspire Americans during the Revolutionary War
Name characters in Invisible Man.
Tod Clifton, Ras the Exhorter, Rinehart, Invisible Man, and Brother Jack.
Name characters in The Floating Opera.
Todd Andrews (protagonist), Jane Mack, Captain Osburn Jones, Mr. Haecker
Name characters in The Prince and the Pauper.
Tom Canty, Prince Edward, King Henry VIII, Miles Hendon
Name characters in The Grapes of Wrath.
Tom Joad, Pa, Ma, Grampa, Granma, Uncle John, Rose of Sharon, Jim Casy (former preacher)
Name the characters of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi.
Tom Sawyer, Aunt Polly, Sid, Becky Thatcher, Injun Joe, Dr. Robinson, Muff Potter
Name important works by Leslie Marmon Silko.
Tony's Story; Laguna Women Poems; Storyteller; Almanac of the Dead; Yellow Woman
What is The Glass Menagerie about?
Too shy Laura drops out of school and collects glass figurines. Her brother, Tom, attempts to find a suitor for her. He invites outgoing Jim, who happens to be the boy Laura had a crush on in high school, to dinner to meet Laura. Jim accidentally breaks a glass unicorn. Jim also happens to be engaged.
Name works by John Steinbeck
Tortilla Flat; Of Mice and Men; The Grapes of Wrath; Cannery Row; The Pearl; East of Eden; Winter of Our Discontent;
Name important works by Louise Erdrich.
Tracks; Love Medicine; The Beet Queen; Baptism of Desire: Poems; The Bingo Palace; The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year; Antelope Woman
Name the characters in McTeague, a story of San Francisco.
Trina Sieppe, Dr. McTeague, Marcus Shouler, Maria Miranda Macapa
Describe the plot of "Of Mice and Men."
Two unemployed migrant workers (George and Lennie)search for work in California during the Great Depression. Lennie is retarded and loves soft things. One day he was stroking Curley's wife's soft hair. She screams and he accidentally kills her.
Name characters in Gravity Rainbow.
Tyrone Slothrop, Pirate Prentice, Roger Mexico, Pig Bodine, Kevin Spectro, and Teddy Bloat.
Name works by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Uncle Tom's Cabin; "Dred"; A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp"; and "Old Town Folks".
Name characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Uncle Tom, Simon Legree, Eva St. Clare, Mr. St. Clare, Mrs. St. Clare, Eliza, George Harris...
Name works by Booker T. Washington.
Up From Slavery (his autobiography); The Future of the American Negro; Character Building
What general theme does Flannery O'Connor's writings take?
Violent and grotesque characters symbolize moral depravity and are driven to damnation. Their only salvation lies in divine awareness and redemption. She was a Christian writer
Who wrote: "The history of the African American Negro is the history of this strife - this longing to attain self-conscious manhood - to merge this double self into a better and truer self."
W.E.B. Dubois
Name works by Henry David Thoreau.
Walden; Civil Disobedience; A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; Paradise (to be) Regained
With which poet is Carl Sandburg most closely compared and why?
Walt Whitman. Both wrote about everyday Americans, had a positive tone, used simple words, were easy to understand, and are written in free verse.
Who could be considered America's Father of American Literature? Why?
Washington Irving was one of the first writers who used American settings and themes in his writing
Name works by Don DeLillo.
White Noise; Libra
Who is considered the Beat generation's most innovative writer?
William Burroughs
Who wrote As I Lay Dying?
William Faulkner
Name writers associated with the "Beat" movement.
William S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Lucien Carr
What is the plot of Miller's "Death of a Salesman?"
Willy Loman, a 63 year old salesman, mentally unstable, who mutters to himself and is unable to distinguish between which of his memories of the past are real and which are imagined.
Name characters in Death of a Salesman.
Willy, Linda, and Biff Loman, and Miss Forsyth
Name novels written by Flannery O'Connor.
Wise Blood; The Violent Bear It Away; A Good Man is Hard to Find
Name characters in "The Naked and the Dead."
Woodrow Wilson, Martinez, Hearn, Croft, and General Cummings
Describe the plot in Hairy Ape.
Yank is a self-confident and muscular stoker who works on an ocean liner. He's insulted by Mildred (a rich passenger) who visits the engine room and is shocked to see Yank sweaty and dirty; she call him a "hairy ape" which causes Yank to be taken aback and ponder his identity.
Name characters in Hairy Ape.
Yank, Mildred Douglas, Mildred's aunt, Paddy, and Long
Name a work by Ring Lardner.
You Know Me, Al
What is an almanac?
a book that calculates the tides and phases of the moon, claims to forecast the weather for the next year, and even provides astrological advice for those who believed in it. Many almanacs also provided recipes, jokes, and wise adages.
What is an aphorism?
a brief statement that expresses a general principle or truth about life
What conceit did Edward Taylor use in his poem "Huswifery?"
a comparison between making cloth and experiencing God's grace
What is the setting for the Pittsburgh Cycle plays?
a fictional black neighborhood, the Pittsburgh Hill District
What is the plot of The Sun Also Rises?
a group of American and British expatriates travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. The term "Lost Generation" was popularized in this work.
What is modernism?
a literary movement characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction. Modernists experimented with literary form and expression, adhering to Ezra Pound's maxim to "Make it new".
What is "The Dial?"
a magazine for the transcendentalists
Besides being a poet, what else was William Carlos Williams?
a pediatrician
What is "The Able McLaughlins" about?
a story of pioneer life in Iowa in Civil War times focused on a family of Scotch Covenanters
What is Richard Cory about?
a successful well-liked man who commits suicide.
What is a Brahmin poet? Name them.
aka "scholar" poets. They were poets who were educated at Harvard. William Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell
What literary device is used abundantly in Waste-Land?
allusions especially biblical ones
What marked the Beat movement?
an attempt to break from the perceived emptiness and sterility of the times by using drugs, breaking morality codes
What is Mark Twain's "Roughing It" about?
autobiographical travel literature. It chronicles his travels to the "wild west." It includes stories about Salt Lake City, Utah and Hawaii, as well as gold and silver prospecting. This book is a prequel to "Innocents Abroad"
What types of stories did Jack Kerouac write?
autobiographies - about his cross country trips
What type of work is Olaudah's writing?
autobiography
What event is Cotton Mather associated with in history? What role did he play?
being a scribe at the Salem Witch Trials
What themes does Toni Morrison use in her writing?
black cultural identity in contemporary America; tension between individuals and society; moral issues; and the problems of good and evil
Describe the theme of Life in the Iron Mills.
bleak lives of contemporary industrial workers in mills and factories
On what topics did William Bartram write?
botany, birds, exploration of America's southeast (NC, SC, GA, FL)
On what topics does Hemingway write?
bullfighting, war, fishing, hunting, outdoor adventure
What genre is Mary Rowlandson's writing?
captivity narrative
Besides writing, what other hobbies did Gertrude Stein have?
collecting artwork especially Modernist paintings. She was especially fond of Picasso's Cubist paintings.
What literary device did Edward Taylor use extensively in his poetry?
conceit
With which movement is Anne Sexton associated?
confessional poet
With which movement is Robert Lowell associated?
confessional poet
With which movement is Sylvia Plath associated?
confessional poet
What theme does Maya Angelou use in her writings?
courage, perseverance, self-acceptance, and the realization of one's full potential especially for women
What are Emily Dickinson's favorite themes?
death and love
What is a nonfiction novel?
depicts real historical figures and actual events woven together with fictitious conversations and using the storytelling techniques of fiction.
Describe the plot of Absolam, Absolam!
details the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen, a white man born into poverty in West Virginia, who comes to Mississippi with the complementary aims of gaining wealth and becoming a powerful family patriarch. The story is told entirely in flashbacks narrated mostly by Quentin Compson to his roommate at Harvard University, Shreve, who frequently contributes his own suggestions and surmises.
What type of story is "The Floating Opera" classified as?
existentialist and nihilist
What is "The Beautiful and the Damned" about?
explores and portrays the New York café society and the American Eastern elite during the Jazz Age and before the great war. It is a story about the complex relationship between Anthony Patch and his wife Gloria Gilbert. It is believed that the story is based on Fitzgerald's own marriage with Zelda
What themes did Upton Sinclair write about?
exposure of corporate and political corruption
Walt Whitman can be considered the Father of ________ in American Literature?
free verse
What type of verse did Carl Sandburg use?
free verse
Describe the theme of The Jungle.
harsh conditions and exploited lives of meat packing industries in the US. The book is set in Chicago. It depicts working class poverty, lack of social supports, harsh and unpleasant working and living conditions, and general hopelessness at the turn of the century. (1906)
For what work is John Winthrop famous?
his sermon, "A Model of Christian Charity"
What types of stories does Stephen King write?
horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, science fiction, fantasy
What element did Sarah Kemble Knight include in her diary?
humor about the challenges she faced
What type of writer is Will Rogers?
humorist
What type of writer was Dorothy Parker?
humorist
What type of writer was James Thurber?
humorist
What type of writer was Robert Benchley?
humorist
What did Transcendentalism stress?
individualism, intuition, nature, and self-reliance
Describe the theme in Native Son.
inequality, racial conflict, violence
What is propaganda?
information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.
What was the theme of Edwin Arlington Robinson's poems?
ironic poems of ordinary people
What is Malcolm Cowley's "Exile's Return" about?
is a non-fiction book which tells the story of American writers and artists (the lost generation) who flocked to Paris following World War I.
What is "The Naked and the Dead" about?
it is about the author's experiences serving in WWII
During which time period did Stephen Crane write?
just prior to turn of the century - 1900
What do the naturalists believe?
life is determined by environment, heredity, and chance
What themes does Alice Walker use in her works?
lives of the poor, oppressed black women in the early 1900's
What is John Updike's Rabbit series about?
middle-class everyman Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom's life. Harry gets frustrated with his life - cluttered house, disappointing son, drunk wife. So he runs away.
With which literary movement is William Carlos Williams associated?
modernism/imagism
What audience was Captain John Smith writing to?
other settlers
What stylistic elements did Thomas Jefferson use in his famous document?
parallel structure; rhythm; forceful and direct language; loaded words
What does Flannery O'Connor use to symbolize Christ in her writings and why?
peacocks - she raised them
What type of writings did William Byrd produce?
personal diaries
On what topic did Willa Cather write?
pioneer life. She is considered a local colorist for the Mid-west
What type of voice did Robert Frost use in his poetry?
plain speech of rural New Englanders
In what style did William Bradford write?
plain style
Besides writing, for what other activities is Emma Goldman known?
plotting to murder, inciting riots, and distributing birth control, serving prison-time, Founding "Mother Earth" journal, getting deported to Russia
What themes does John Steinbeck use?
poverty, desperation, social injustice that he witnessed during the Great Depression
What type of work is Common Sense considered to be?
propaganda
What is the A Raisin in the Sun about?
racial discrimination when a black family buys a house in an all-white neighborhood in Chicago
What themes did Charles Chesnutt use?
racial themes
What theme does Jamaica Kincaid use in her writing?
rage at cultural domination
What literary movements were Stephen Crane part of?
realism and naturalism
What topics did Edgar Lee Masters focus on?
small-town life, ordinary people
What style of writing does Flannery O'Connor use?
southern gothic
Name some narrative techniques used by William Faulkner.
stream of consciousness, interior monologues, discontinuous time, fragmented chronological order, multiple narrators
What topic does John Updike use in his writings?
the American Protestant small-town middle class
What did Mary Rowlandson allude to in her writings?
the Bible
What is Hart Crane's The Bridge poem about?
the Brooklyn Bridge
Name the characters from The Open Boat.
the Captain, the Oiler (Billie), the Cook, and the Correspondent
With which literary movement is Countee Cullen associated?
the Harlem Renaissance
With which literary movement is Zora Neal Hurston associated?
the Harlem Renaissance
What is "muckraking?"
the action of searching out and publicizing scandalous information about famous people in an underhanded way.
What literary device is used in Ethan Frome?
the extended flashback
What are the themes of Henry Roth's writings?
the immigrant experience, especially the Jewish-American experience in the Depression Era
What is the main theme of Henry James' works?
the innocence and exuberance of America contrasted with the corruption and wisdom of Europe.
What does the billboard in the Great Gatsby symbolize?
the loss of spiritual values over materialism, hollowness of the American dream, corruption
Which poets were influenced by Edward Taylor's use of conceits?
the metaphysical poets like Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, and writer John Steinbeck
What is Edgar Allen Poe credited with creating for the literature world?
the modern short story, psychotic murder stories, and the detective story
What literary genre did Truman Capote create?
the nonfiction novel
What is nihilism?
the philosophy that life is without objective meaning, purpose or intrinsic value
Describe the plot of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
the story is about Robert Jordan, a young American who travels to Spain to fight on the side of the Communists against the forces of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War
In what person did Captain John Smith write?
third person
What characterizes the "confessional" poetry?
this poetry dealt with deeply personal, emotional, and psychological matters
What was The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man about?
this story is about a mixed-race man who struggles with his identity in America
What was the purpose of William Bradford's writing?
to journal life in the Plymouth colony and to glorify God
What style of verse did Robert Frost use?
traditional verse forms especially the sonnet, rhyming couplets, and blank verse.
What belief system did Emily Dickinson follow?
transcendentalism
With which literary movement is Walt Whitman associated?
transcendentalism and realism
What devices did Mark Twain use to develop humor?
vernacular, exaggeration, deadpan narrator
What theme does James Baldwin use in his writings?
what it means to be black and homosexual in America
What is a "figure of speech?"
words or phrases that compare one thing to another unlike thing. They are not to be taken literally. Examples include metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, and onomatopeia.
