美国文学期末考试问答题及答案

1.What is Emerson’s attitude towards charity? Why does he hold

such an attitude?

The worst of charity is that the lives you are asked to preserve are not worth preserving.Not all charity mean goodness.One must explore if it be goodness.If malice and vanity wear the coat of philanthropy,that shall not pass,One’s goodness must have some edge to it,else it is none.

2.According to the poem “A Psalm of Life”, how should our lives be

led to overcome the fact that each day brings us nearer to death? According to these sentences“Be not like dumb, driven cattle!Be a hero in the strife!”“Act, -act in the living Present!Heart within, and God o'er head!”we can see the speaker is a man of action, always optimistic and cheerful, trying to achieve as much as possible in the short span of life.We should work harder and live happier.Llife is not a dream, but very real, and urges us to live it to the fullest. The purpose of life is to do something. Our own individual time on earth is limited and will pass very quickly, we should try to achieve sth on earth and leave behind something.

3.Do you think the narrator and his listener ever suspect the

presence of the humor of the story in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”? Why? How do you interpret their interactions?

The narrator and his listener never noticed or suspected the presence of humor.During the intercourse the narrator went vigorously on his monotonous narrative without a little smiling talking about the animals and the things like while the listener felt rather puzzled or bothered by his stories.It seemed to be kind of coarse things. So the two different scenes go on separately without a intersection.And their interaction was a complete failure according toour common sense about communication.But it in this sense produced the effect of humor which can be tasted by our readers due to the skills adopted by Mark Twain .

4.What does the title of the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” stand

for?

"Desire" is in fact a streetcar's name in America,but in this drama,it alludes the life of Blanche who indulging herself in desire and lies.

There is an actual streetcar named “Desire” that Blanche takes on her way to the Kowalskis’. Which brings us nicely into our discussion of the metaphorical meaning of the title .Blanche is literally brought to the Kowalski place by “Desire,” but she is also brought there by desire; her sexual escapeds in Laurel ruined her reputation and drove her out of town.Desire.then Cemeterird , then Elysian Fields.Sex,death,afterlife.It’s like a linear progression.Sec leads to death,or at least some heavy-duty wreckage. Blanche herself seems to recognize some sort of connection here with this line, one that is key to understanding the role that desire plays in Streetcar: “Death, death was as close as you are. The opposite is desire” . Blanche is somehow under the impression that sex is her escape from death. She turned to sex to comfort herself after her husband died, and after her relatives passed

away one by one.

5.In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, the old waiter said to the

younger waiter: “We are of two different kinds.” In what way do you think they are different?

The two waiters represent two contrasting attitudes towards life. The young waiter tends to be selfish and confident. He is fully confident of his marriage and work, but he does not know that all these are based on his youth, which is not reliable since it is temporary. He lives in nada, of which he is not aware at all. He lives in a state of ignorance, muddling along. We can say that he is physically alive but spiritually dead. The old waiter tends to be sympathetic and less confident. He wants to help other lonely people who have lost their beliefs, although the only thing he can offer them is a decent place as a refuge from the disorderly, dark, and meaningless world. He is fully aware of the nihilistic life of modern men, therefore, he faces such a meaningless life with courage, endurance, and dignity by seeking order, code, and meaning of life in his heart.

6.What is speaker’s reaction to modern America in “A

Supermarket in California”?

"A Supermarket in California" doesn't use the word "America" until the end of the poem, but that doesn't mean this one's not all about our fair nation. Ginsberg imagines an America that fits a very 1950s ideal: blue automobiles in driveways of suburban homes, whole families shopping together. The speaker feels like an outsider in this America, which is all about the things you can buy; he conjures up Whitman who, he hopes, represents a "lost America of love," which was more about love than about things. But in the last line of the poem, the speaker calls all this into question: was there really ever an "America of love"? Or, like Walt Whitman, is this all a fantasy? 7.How is the egg in “The Triumph of the Egg”used to unify the

narrative elements?

In the whole story of the article,the checked destiny of eggs,surly,is the main clue of all the episodes of the whole story,also,eggs reflect changes of father,mother and I.Chicken raising represents father’s starting pursuing his dream.

Then chickens become sick and die constantly,making father meet troubles and can not control his own life.Grotesques somewhat equals to distorted concept. The dreadful circle ,shows the abnormal relations between egg and chicken, people and their generation.Egg trick reveals father’s desire to be respected, but the failure finally break his dream .In the end,father lay the egg, close the restaurant and go to bed ,shows that he finally decides to give up.