|Name: _________________________||Period: ___________________|
This test consists of 5 short answer questions and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. What does Williams say that many American crimes are caused by?
2. What does the narrator's interlocutor, Valyry Larbaud, admire about the Puritans?
3. What category of people does Williams say that Houston fits into?
4. How does Poe respond to Lowell's criticism of him in verse?
5. What does Poe call Longfellow?
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Consider the story of Pere Rasles. Why do you think William Carlos Williams admires Rasles so much? Write an essay explaining Williams' admiration for Rasles, supporting your thesis with evidence from In the American Grain. Do not rely only on evidence that you can find in the chapter, Pere Sebastian Rasles--include evidence from other chapters as well.
Essay Topic 2
What does Williams mean when he says that fear drove Benjamin Franklin's curiosity, that he built a nation based on the desire to huddle and protect? Write an essay explaining why you think Williams might feel this way. Support your answer with evidence from the book.
Essay Topic 3
In the Introduction, Horace Gregory writes that "History is a humiliating subject for any man to think of knowing...The desire to know history is a near relative of the desire to know truth, and that is where, for most of us, a pit lies waiting." Does William Carlos Williams avoid the pit, or fall into it? Why or why not?
This section contains 348 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)