Crossing The Ferry
Read the following chapters and answer the questions. each chapter has 6 questions.do not write questions just give the heading of chapter and number your answers please
Walt Whitman. “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” 1857. “Song of the Broad-Axe.” 1871. Whitman Archive. Ed Folsom and Kenneth M. Price, eds.2006. 22 February 2006. http://www.whitmanarchive.org/works/
Louisa May Alcott. Work: A Story of Experience. New York: Penguin 1994 and/or http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/wasoe10.txt
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “The Deliverance,” The Fatal Pledge,” “A Double Standard.” Electronic Text Center, University/> of Virginia Library/>/>. 8 June 2005. 22 August 2005. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modeng0.browse.html
Mark Twain. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mineola: Dover Thrift Editions, 1994 and/or http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/Twa2Huc.html
Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie. Mineola: Dover Thrift Editions, 2004 and/or http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DREISER/carrie.html
Crossing The Ferry
Question # 1
Not the faintest trace of the melancholy Jacques about him; nothing interesting, romantic, pensive, or even stern. Only a broad-shouldered, brown-bearded man, with an old hat and coat, trousers tucked into his boots, fresh mold on the hand he had given her to shake, and the cheeriest voice she had ever heard.
Which character does this passage describe? [Note: Mold in this context means ordinary garden dirt, not fungus.] In what ways does his appearance reflect his personality, as it is revealed later in the novel?
Question#2
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky so I felt;
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd;
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d;
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried;
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships, and the thick-stem’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.
What specific developments in American society in the second half of the nineteenth century does this passage reflect? Relate particular phrases or images to the historical phenomena that they refer to.
Question # 3
Her eye wandered to and fro, and brightened as it went; for though a poor, plain room it was as neat as hands could make it, and so glorified with sunshine that she thought it a lovely place, in spite of the yellow paper with green cabbage roses on it, the gorgeous plaster statuary on the mantelpiece, and the fragrance of doughnuts which pervaded the air. Every thing suggested home life, humble but happy, and Christie’s solitary heart warmed at the sights and sounds about her.
Which place does this passage describe? What qualities or values would its specific details have been likely to connote for nineteenth-century readers? (Note: you’re welcome to look for historical information about specific items, like the “gorgeous plaster statuary” or the yellow and green wallpaper; just check that your sources are valid and relevant to the specific period when Work takes place, and identify your information sources clearly in your answer.)
Question # 4
Although much of Work is Realist in tone, a few episodes are written in a style emphasizing dramatic, extraordinary events and eerie, gloomy details. What is a specific term for this literary style? Identify a particular chapter or passage marked by this style, pointing to its distinctive features.
Question # 5
When Christie opened the eyes that had closed so wearily, afternoon sunshine streamed across the room, and seemed the herald of happier days.
Light, especially sunlight, is a recurrent motif throughout Work. What symbolic purposes do the references to or descriptions of sunlight serve? How is light relevant to larger themes or philosophical assertions of the novel?
Question # 6
What American philosophers are associated with the values and beliefs that Mr. Power and David Sterling represent? What is the name of this philosophical movement? Feel free to research this question; just be sure to document any information sources you use.
“The Deliverance,” “A Double Standard,” and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Question 1
Who is speaking in this passage in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and what incident provokes the speech? Explain in five or more sentences why it is a turning point in the novel. Is there a comparable turning point in Alcott’s Work?
“Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people is dat puts dirt on de head er dey fren’s en makes ’em ashamed.”
Question 2
In “The Deliverance,” what changes does Harper depict in the relationship between the slaves and the owners over the course of the poem? How does Chloe evidently feel about her owners at the beginning of the poem, and at what points in the poem do those feelings evidently change?
Question 3
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, what is the decision that causes Huck Finn to say, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell”? What is Mark Twain implying about organized religion as a source of moral guidance? In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where does Huck find the best moral inspiration?
Question 4
Can you blame me if I’ve learned to think
Your hate of vice a sham,
When you so coldly crushed me down
And then excused the man?
What is the situation depicted in Harper’s “A Double Standard”? Why has the status of the fictional character speaking in the poem changed so drastically, and why is she so bitter? You can draw on information about a comparable scenario in Work: A Story of Experience in your answer.
Question 5
“We said there warn’t no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft.”
What qualities or values does Twain associate with Huck and Jim’s raft on the Mississippi? What places or situations contrast with the “free and easy” life on the raft, and what qualities does Twain associate with those “other places”? Give specific examples.
Question 6
What is an unreliable narrator in a work of fiction? Describe a specific example from the works we’ve read so far this semester.
Sister Carrie
Question 1
Here was a type of the traveling canvasser for a manufacturing house–a class which at that time was first being dubbed by the slang of the day ‘drummers.’ He came within the meaning of a still newer term, which had sprung into general use among Americans in 1880, and which concisely expressed the thought of one whose dress or manners are calculated to elicit the admiration of susceptible young women–a ‘masher.’
Which character does this passage describe? How does his line of work and his personality reflect some important economic and social developments in American life at the end of the nineteenth century? (Of course, these economic and social developments are thematically important throughout Sister Carrie, not just in this brief episode.)
Question 2
What does Carrie do to get promoted to a star’s status and salary when she is performing the role of the Quaker girl in the Casino show? How does this episode illustrate Theodore Dreiser’s deterministic beliefs? (Relevant quotations from Sister Carrie are especially welcome to explain the second part of this question.)
Question 3
Why does Carrie decide to accept Drouet’s offer to provide a room for her soon after she comes to Chicago? You may describe either her motivation or plot mechanics or both–but refer explicitly to descriptive details, interior monologues, or speeches from the text of Sister Carrie.
Question 4
He took out the drawer again and lifted the bills. They were so smooth, so compact, so portable. How little they made, after all. He decided he would take them. Yes, he would. He would put them in his pocket. Then he looked at that and saw they would not go there. His hand satchel! To be sure, his hand satchel. They would go in that–all of it would. No one would think anything of it either. He went into the little office and took it from the shelf in the corner.
Which character is this passage describing, and what is the decision he is making here? What eventually impels him to take the bills, after his hesitation? How do the particular details of the episode emphasize Dreiser’s philosophical beliefs?
Question 5
Men and women hurried by in long, shifting lines. She felt the flow of the tide of effort and interest–felt her own helplessness without realizing the wisp on the tide that she was.
Along with several other writers of his era, Dreiser identified himself as a Naturalist. How does Sister Carrie illustrate the Naturalist philosophy? What are the most important forces–internal and external–that shape the respective fates of Hurstwood and Carrie?
Question 6
Extra Credit: Of which character does Carrie say, “He probably could be happy all alone. He’s so strong”? What aspects of this character’s occupation might distinguish him from Hurstwood, Carrie, and Drouet?
……………………..Answer preview………………….
This passage refers to a man who is the speaker of the poem. There are more than a few ways in which the man’s appearance reflect his personality. For instance, the speaker in the poem is democratic. This shows that his personality is considerable in the society. He is an independent man, who does everything on his own (Walt 352)……………………..
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