Midterm Exam Review

Vocabulary

100

An element of the plot; the highest point of tension/turning point of the story

What is the climax? 

200

An element of fiction that consists of the story's time, place, social statuses, weather, historical period, and descriptions of surroundings. 

What is the setting? (will also accept cultural context)

300

A point of view that follows one single person but is expressed with "he/she/they" pronouns and cannot know all characters internal thoughts. (think of Passing) 

What is limited 3rd person narration? 

400

A character that changes significantly because of something good or bad that happened throughout the course of the story. 

What is a dynamic character? 

500

One of the "race rules" that society has constructed; The belief that race isn’t physical, biological, or genetic as much as it is a caste system of prescribed ideals. Regardless of one’s appearance or genetics, race is determined by a set of ideas about specific races.

What is race as a social construct? 

Themes

100

In "The Life and Times of Estelle Walks Above," describe the narrator's opinions about the theme of racial identity as it converges with masculine identity. 

The narrator thinks that male identity is influenced by cultural identity. Because of this he outlines the differences between white men and Spokane native men- including things like: Spokane natives being the "most feminized men on the planet," who cry easily and express themselves in bright clothes/dancing. 

200

Consider freedom of identity as a theme for "The Yellow Wallpaper." 

This could have either a response about her mental freedom through the journal or at the end in escaping her doctor. This could also include something about freedom from physical confinement of the room. Or this could include freedoms as a woman, from the general plot allotted to women, freedom of the oppressed woman in the wallpaper, ect. 

300

Consider how the theme/motif of Blues and Jazz music appears in "Sonny's Blues." 

Your answer should include something about music is the only way for Sonny and the narrator to communicate, music is the only way that people are able to express their suffering and pain (specifically blues music and jazz music are unique ways to express specifically African American suffering and pain/ a pain other cultures wouldn't exactly understand). Music is what draws the narrator to Sonny, allowing him to transform/learn and become a dynamic character. Music is what allows Sonny freedom from his various imprisonments. Ect. 

400

Consider the theme of perception in "The Wife's Story." 

Your answer should include something about the wife's perception of her husband as a great person/husband/father shrouding her ability to accurately see what his is. Similarly, you should include something about the story's purposeful act of playing with reader's perceptions- our perceived expectations for a story, along with the narrator's refusal to understand, lead us to ignore obvious signs of what the husband is. 

500

Consider the theme of sexuality in Passing. 

Your answer should include something about how characters including Irene, Clare, and Brian might be passing for heterosexual and could then branch into the effects, consequences, and reasons for passing as heterosexual. It could also instead branch into Irene's and Clare's relationship or also into Irene's and Brian's relationship. 

Plots

100

Provide the plot for "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution

Exposition: new house, husband’s a doctor, just had a baby, she’s ill and this is her cure, characters: John, narrator, Jenny, Bro/doc

Rising Action: thoughts about wallpaper, room, window

Climax:thoughts on the wallpaper changing/manifesting to obsession

Falling Action: ripping off the paper, locking her husband out of her room

Resolution: husband faints, “creeps” over him

200

Provide the plot for "The Wife's Story." 

Exposition: describing memories of good things

Rising action: the whole story OR when she couldn’t figure it out

Climax: End/attack OR while the family realized the truth

Falling action: no falling action OR the chase

Resolution: When she sees his dead body

300

Provide the plot diagram for "Sonny's Blues." 

Exposition: the narrator/friend talking, memories

Rising Action: the narrator finally sending a letter to Sonny

Climax: narrator/Sonny’s argument / Grace’s death 

Falling Action: Sonny living with the narrator again, especially the scene where the narrator watches Sonny watching a street performance

Resolution: narrator’s epiphany in the nightclub

400

Provide the basic plot of Passing. 

Exposition: the memory of Chicago

Rising Action: 

Climax: The first reconnection with Clare that alters the the story moving forward- meeting John Bellew

Falling Action: Continuing to meet with Clare, taking her to the ball

Resolution: Clare falls to her death

Passage Identification

100

“And it may be so, because my husband would do that. I’d have rouse and say, ‘Where you going to?’ and he’d say, ‘Oh, hunting, be back this evening,’ and and it wasn’t like him, even his voice was different. But I’d be so sleepy, and not wanting to wake the kids, and he was so good and responsible, it was no call of mine to go asking, ‘Why?’ and ‘Where?’ and all like that” (1). 

This is from Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Wife's Story." It is the wife/narrator speaking to herself/the audience and it is a passage where she first begins noticing that her husband is different/acting strange, but already she chooses to ignore this, refusing to alter her own perceptions even in the face of evidence. 

200

“These boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities." 

This passage comes from "Sonny's Blues" and is spoken by the narrator. Here he describes the limited possibilities for African Americans in the 1950's, especially those in Harlem, despite the fact that they all had hopeful dreams of escaping and living the American Dream. 

300

“It’s funny about ‘passing’. We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an off kind of revulsion, but we protect it.” 

This comes from Nella Larsen's Passing and is spoken by Irene to Brian as they dress for the ball that Irene has put on. The passage is important because it makes obvious the irony of the story that we, as readers, should already have picked up on and it focuses on the rules about passing which are a main theme of the novel. 

400

“I caught him just before he fell when he took the first steps he ever took in this world." 

This is spoken by the narrator of James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" while reminiscing about his role as big brother. It is important because it emphasizes the narrator's role to protect his brother, while also pointing out the way he has fallen from this standard.