YES WE CAN: AMERICAN IDEALISM Spring 2010
Final Examination
Essay Questions
Read the questions carefully and answer each part of them completely and according to directions. Cite specific images, lines, moments or scenes that support your viewpoint.
I will be at our regular classroom on Monday, May 24th between noon and 1:00 P.M.. Completed exams should either be delivered to me then or left in my mailbox in the Liberal Arts office by May 24th. If you have a severe problem meeting that deadline, contact me in advance of May 24th in person or by e-mail; otherwise I will expect your completed exam on time. In any case, I will accept exams no later than May 26, 2010. There can be no exceptions to this deadline. If you want me to return your exam, please put a note on it to that effect and tell me where to send it.
ANSWER THREE OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. THE NUMBER OF YOUR RESPONSE SHOULD CORRESPOND TO THE NUMBER OF THE QUESTION.
1. A number of the people we have encountered this semester have hit the road for various reasons. Describe the reasons behind the travels of Alexis de Tocqueville, William Least Heat Moon and Johnnie Gray (Buster Keaton in The General). What was each one looking for? What did each one find? Choose a single incident in each work that you think is illustrative of the whole experience each traveler had.
2. Because of your national reputation as a brilliant speaker, able to bring your listeners to the edge of laughter and the brink of tears simultaneously, you have been asked to deliver one of the eulogies at a memorial service for Anton Rosicky and then in the same week, provide some remarks at a testimonial dinner for Ma Joad. Remembering, as you do, that good speeches are never overlong, always lively and to the point, your two speeches are: .....?
3. At the beginning of the semester, we discussed the relationship of responsibility to the freedom afforded in America. Describe how responsibility was or was not exercised by Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, Editha Balcom in Editha, Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, and Eve Harrington in All About Eve. Compare the levels of responsibility each one demonstrated.
4. The power of nature can unexpectedly and irrevocably shift the course of the most determined pursuit of an American Dream. Compare the way nature is portrayed in The Grapes of Wrath, Neighbor Rosicky, and The Storm.
