美国文学史及作品选读习题集(3)

3 The Literature of Reason and Revolution

I. Fill in the blanks.

1. At the initial period the spread of ideas of the American Enlightenment was largely due to_____.

2. Franklin edited the first colonial magazine, which he called____.

3. Franklin‘s best writing is found in his masterpiece_____.

4. Thomas Paine, with his natural gift for pamphleteering and rebellion, was appropriately born into an age of____.

5. On January 10, 1776, P aine‘s famous pamphlet appeared.

6. In Philadelphia, ______ the Pennsylvania magazine, and contributed to the Pennsylvania journal.

7. A series of sixteen pamphlets by Paine was entitled_______.

8. Paine‘s second most important work __ as an impassioned plea against hereditary monarchy.

9. The most outstanding poet in American of the 18th century was ____.

10. Philip Freneau‘s famous poem ____was written about his imprisoned experience.

11. Philip Freneau was a close friend and political associate of president _____

12. ___was considered as the ―poet of the American Revolution‖,

13. Philip Freneau was noteworthy first because of nature of his poem. They were truly American and very patriotic. In this respect, he reflected the spirit of his age. Therefore, he has been called the ―__ of American poetry‖.

14. In 1791, probably with Jefferson‘s support, __ established in Philadelphia the national gazette.

15. In American literature, the eighteenth century was an Age of__ and Revolution. II. Matching

1. Benjamin Franklin a. The Age of reason

2. Thomas Jefferson b. Common Sense

3. Benjamin Franklin c. The Right of Man

4. Thomas Paine d. The Autobiography

5. Thomas Paine e. Poor R ichard’s Almanac

6. Patrick Henry f. Women’s Rights Pioneer

7. Thomas Paine g. Give me Liberty or Give me Death

8. Abigail Smith Adams h. Letters from an American Farmer

9. Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur i. The Declaration of Independence

10. Joel Barlow j. The Hasty Pudding

III. Multiple Choice

1. In American literature, the eighteenth century was the age of the Enlightenment. __was the dominant spirit.

A. Humanism

B. Rationalism

C. Revolution

D. Evolution

2. In American literature, the Enlighteners were not opposed to _____.

A. the colonial order

B. religious obscurantism

C. the puritan tradition

D. the secular literature

3. The English colonies in North America rose in arms against their parent country and the continental congress adopted ___in 1776.

A. The Declaration of Independence

B. the Sugar Act

C. The Stamp act

D. the Mayflower Compact

4. Which statement about Franklin is not true?

A. He instructed his countrymen as a printer.

B. He was a scientist.

C. He was s master of diplomacy.

D. He was a Puritan.

5. The secular ideals of the American Enlightenment were exemplified in the life and career of ___.

A. THOMAS Hood B .Benjamin Franklin

C. Thomas Jefferson

D. George Washington

6. Which of the following does not belong to this literary period?

A. The American Crisis

B. The Federalist

C. Declaration of Independence

D. The Waste Land

7. Benjamin Franklin was the epitome of the ____.

A. American Enlightenment

B. Sugar act

C. Chartist movement

D. Romanticist

8. From 1732 to 1758, Benjamin Franklin wrote and published his famous _______, an annual collection of proverbs.

A. The Autobiography

B. Poor R ichard’s Almanac

C. Common Sense

D. The General Magazine

9. Which is not connected with Thomas Paine?

A. Common Sense

B. The American crisis

C. Pennsylvania Magazine

D. The Autobiography

10. Choose the works which is not written by Paine.

A. Rights of Man

B. The Age of Reason

C. Poor Richards Almanac

D. Common Sense

11. The first pamphlet published in America to urge immediate independence from Britain is____.

A. The Rights of Man

B. Common Sense

C. The American Crisis

D. Declaration of Independence

12. ―These are the times that try men‘s souls‖. These words were once read to Washington troops and much to shore up the spirits of the revolutionary soldiers. Who is the author of these words?

A. Benjamin Franklin

B. Thomas Jefferson

C. Thomas Paine

D. George Washington

13. Which statement about Philip Freneau is not true?

A. He was a satirist

B. He was a pamphleteer

C. He was a singer

D. He was a bitter polemicist

14. Which poem is not written by Philip Freneau?

A. The British Prison Ship

B. T he wild Honey Suckle

C. The Indian burying ground

D. The day of doom

15. Who was considered as the ―poet of American revolution‖?

A. Michael Wigglesworth

B. Edward Taylor

C. Annne Bradstreet

D. Philip Freneau

16. It was not until January 1776 that a widely heard public voice demanded complete separation from England. The voice was that of ___, whose pamphlet Common Sense, with its heated language, increased the growing demand for separation.

A. Thomas Paine

B. Thomas Jefferson

C. George Washington

D. Patrick Henry

17. At the reason and revolutionary period, Americans were influenced by the European movement called the______.

A. Chartist Movement

B. Romanticist Movement

C. Enlightenment Movement

D. Modernist Movement

18. Thomas Jefferson‘s attitude, that is, a firm belief in progress, and the pursuit of happiness, is typical the period we now call_____.

A. Age of Revolution

B. Age of Reason

C. Age of Romanticism

D. Age of Regionalism

19. _____carries the voice not of an individual but of a whole people. It is more than writing of the revolutionary period. It defined the meaning of the American Revolution.

A. Common Sense

B. The American Crisis

C. Declaration of Independence

D. Deface of the English People

20. Benjamin Franklin shaped his writing after the ____by the English essayists Addison and Steele.

A. Spectator Papers

B. Walden

C. Nature

D. The Sacred Wood

IV. Literary Terms

1. Autobiography

2. Persuasion

3. Aphorism

4. The Hartford Wits

V. Identification

Passage 1

These are the times that try men‘s souls; The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: ?tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a paper price upon its goods.

Questions:

1. Which book is passage taken from?

2. Who is the author of this book?

3. Whom is the author praising? Whom is the author criticizing?

4. What do you think of the language used in the book?

Passage 2

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature‘s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; That to secure these rights, Government are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; That whenever any From of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.

Questions:

5. Which work is this passage taken from?

6. What truths are self-evident? What is the purpose of government, and when should

a government be replaced?

Passage 3

In a branch of willow hid

Sings the evening Caty-did:

From the lofty locust bough

Feeding on a drop of dew

In her suit of green array‘d

Hear her singing in the shade

Caty-did, Caty-did, Caty-did!

Questions:

7. Who is the writer of these verses?

8. What is the title of this lyrical poem?

9. What is a ―Caty-did‖?

Passage 4

It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by anther; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following

method.

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalog more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I proposed to myself,, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning.

Questions:

10. Which work is this passage taken from?

11. Who is the author of this book?

12. What is your understanding of the book?

VI. Questions and Answers.

1. What is a proverb? Which writer in his period liked to use proverbs?

2. What are the characteristics of Benjamin Franklin‘s literary work?

3. What work was The Federalist?

4. Who said ―Give me library, or give me death‖? What was the impact of the quotation?

5. Could you please give a brief account of American literature of this period?

VII. Analysis of Literary W orks.

1. Write an analysis of The Poor Richard’s Almanac.

2. Write an analysis of The American Crisis.

3. Write an analysis of Declaration of Independence.

Keys

I. Fill in the blanks.

1. journalism 9. Philip Freneau

2. The General Magazine 10. The British Prison Ship

3. Autobiography11. Thomas Jefferson

4. revolution 12. Philip Freneau

5. Common Sense13. Father

6. Thomas Paine 14. Philip Freneau

7. The American Crisis15. Reason

8. The Rights of Man

II. Matching.

1---e; 2---I; 3---d; 4---c; 5---a;

6---g; 7---b; 8---f; 9---h; 10---j.

III. Multiple Choice.

1. B

2. D

3. A

4. D

5. B

6. D

7. A

8. B

9. D 10. C 11. B 12. C 13. C 14. D 15. D 16. A 17. C 18. B 19. C 20. A

III.Literary Terms.

1. Autobiography: An autobiography is a person‘s account of his or her life. Generally written in the first person, with the author speaking as ―I‖, autobiographies present life events as the writer views them. In addition to providing inside details about the writer‘s life, autobiographies offer insights into the beliefs and perceptions of the author. Autobiographies also offer a glimpse of what it was like to live in the author‘s time period. Autobiographies often provide a view of historical events that you won‘t find in history books. Benjamin Franklin‘s Autobiography set the standard for what was then a new genre.

2. Persuasion:Persuasion is writing meant to convince readers to think or act in a certain way. A persuasive writer appeals to emotions or reason, offers opinio ns, and urges action.

3. Aphorism:An aphorism is a short, concise statement expressing a wise or clever observation or a general truth. A variety of devices make aphorisms easy to remember. Some contain rhymes or repeated words or sounds; others use parallel structure to present contrasting ideas. The aphorism ―no pain, no gain‖ for instance, uses rhyme, repetition, and parallel structure.

4. The Hartford Wits: Three Revolutionary poets of large and serious purpose, and widely famed in their generation, may be grouped together, not only because of some similarity in their verse, but also because they were all Connecticut men; two were conspicuous members of a coterie noted as ―the Hartford Wits.‖That Connecticut town, indeed, enjoyed a reputation as a literary centre through the exploits of this group. The two Hartford poets were John Trumbull and Joel Barlow; the third of this group was Timothy Dwight.

V. Identification.

1. The American Crisis

2. Thomas Paine

3. Paine is praising those who stand ―it‖, it referring to ―the service of their country‖. Inn the meantime, Paine is criticizing those who shrink from the service of their country in this crisis.

4. The language is plain, impressive and forceful. Pain himself once said that his purpose as a writer was to use plain language to make those who can scarcely read understand.

5. Declaration of Independence

6. All men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, and among these rights are Life, Liberty he pursuit of Happiness. The purpose of government is to secure these ends. And when the government becomes destructive to these ends, it should be replaced.

7. Philip Freneau

8. To a Caty- Did

9. According to Freneau‘s note, a Caty-did is a well-known insect, when full grown, it is about two inches in length, and of the exact color of a green leaf. It can sing such

a song as Caty-did n the evening, towards autumn.

10. Autobiography

11. Benjamin Franklin

12. One of Franklin‘s literary successes was his famous Autobiography, which he began to write in 1771, resumed in 1778, and left incomplete at his death. The purpose of its author was to make the experiences of his own case, a source of help and inspiration to others. He therefore tells the story of his struggles, his errors, his experiments with himself, his accomplishment, with wonderful frankness and extreme simplicity.

VI. Questions and Answers.

1. Proverbs are nearly as old as language itself. They have many different purposes and are used in different types of situations—to amuse, to educate, to sanction, to make a point or a conversation.

As expressions of basic principles of folk wisdom draw from the daily experiences of a group of people, proverbs exist in all societies. They reflect a particular culture‘s view of the world and convey feelings about fate, the seasons, the natural world, word and effort, love, death, and other universal experiences. These memorable bits of wisdom have survived for centuries; perhaps they reflect unchanging truths about human nature.

Most of Benjamin Franklin‘s aphorisms are adapted from anonymous traditional or folk saying, known as proverbs. Franklin, who believed that clarity and brevity were two of the most important characteristics of good prose, rewrote many proverbs, crafting short, direct, witty sayings that taught a lesson.

2. The predominant quality in all of Benjamin Franklin‘s writing is its genuine humanness; this is what brought the Almanac into instant popularity, and what makes the Autobiography an enduring American classic. It is a quality that had been extremely rare in the earlier colonial literature. A keen sense of humor, also, homely and blunt but true, is constant in Franklin‘s work and one of the essential factors in its success. Noted examples of his wit are found in his anecdote of ―The Whistle and The Dialogue between Dr. Franklin and the Gout‖, which are among the papers entitled Bagatelles, written when Franklin was in France.

Franklin‘s literary work was thoroughly typical of himself. Honest, plain, democratic, clear-headed, shrewd, worldly-wise, he was interested in the practical side of life. To him the matter of ―getting on‖in the world was o duty; and to enable others to see the advantages of integrity, application, and thrift was his self-appointed task. His influence in this direction was immense. The absence of ideality is obvious in all his compositions. He never reached the high levels of imaginative art, but on this lower plane of material interest and every-day life he was, and is, without a peer among writers. The works which have been mentioned possess a universal charm.

3. The Federalist

After the conclusion of the war, during the critical period which preceded the adoption of a constitution, there appeared at intervals a very notable series of papers which were designed in their entirety to set forth the fundamental principles of government. These appeared as articles contributed to various New Y ork newspapers. There were eighty-five in all, and their authorship was concealed

under the pseudonym of ―Publius‖. In 1788, these papers were collected and published under the name of The Federalist—a collection which ranks as our chief political classic. Of these famous papers, five are attribute to John Jay, twenty-nine James Madison, and fifty-one to Alexander Hamilton.

4. Remembered most for his fiery battle cry ―Give me liberty or give me death,‖Patrick Henry is considered the most powerful orator of the American Revolution. He helped to inspire colonists to unite in an effort to win their independence. Shortly after his 1765 election to the Virginia House of burgesses, Henry delivered one of his most powerful speeches, declaring his opposition to the Stamp Act. Over the protests of some of the most influential members, the Virginia House adopted Henry‘s resolutions.

In 1775, Henry delivered his most famous speech at the Virginia Provincial Convention. While most of speakers that day argued that armed resistance to England. His speech had a powerful impact on the audience, feeding the Revolutionary spirit that led the singing of the Declaration of Independence.

5. In contrast to the private soul-searching of the Puritans of New England, much of what was produced during the Revolutionary period was public writing. By the time of the war for independence, nearly fifty newspapers had been established in the costal cities. At the time of Washington‘s inauguration, there were nearly forty magazines. Almanacs were popular from Massachusetts to Georgia.

The mind of the nation was on politics. Journalists and printers provided a form for the expression of ideas. After 1763, those ideas were increasingly focused on relations with Great Britain and, more broadly, on the nature of government. The writing of permanent importance from the Revolutionary era is mostly political writing.

The public writing and speaking of American statesmen in two tumultuous decades, the 1770‘s and 1780‘s, helped to reshape not the nation but also the world.

Patrick Henry was a spellbinding orator whose speech against the Stamp Act in the Virginia House of burgesses brought cries of ―Treason!‖ Ten years later, his electrifying speech to the Virginia Convention expressed the rising sentiment foe independence.

Thomas Paine was perhaps more influential than other in swaying public option in favor of independence. His 1776 pamphlet Common Sense swept the colonies, selling 100000copies in the months.

The Declaration of independence was first drafted by Thomas Jefferson in June 1776. The finished document is largely his work, although a committee of five statesmen, including Benjamin Franklin, was involved in its creation. The Declaration, despite some exaggerated charges against King George III, is one of the most influential statements ever made.

Another revolutionary period document written by committee that has stood the test of time is the Constitution of the United States, drafted in 1787. The framers, whose new nation boasted about four million people, hoped that the Constitution would last at least a generation. It still survives, amended only 27 times, as the political foundation of a nation of 50 states and more than 250 million people.

While politics dominated the literature of the Revolutionary period, not every writer of note was a statesman. V erse appears in most of the newspapers, and numerous broadside ballads were published. One of the most popular broadside ballads was called ―The Dying Redcoat‖, supposedly written by a British sergeant mortally wounded in the Revolution.

Two other poets of the day whose works were more sophisticated than the broadside ballads were Joel Barlow and Phillis Wheatley. Barlow, a 1778 Yale graduate, is best remembered for ―The Hasty Pudding‘, a mock –heroic tribute to cornmeal mush. Phillis Wheatley, born in Africa and brought to Boston in childhood as s slave, showed early signs of literary genius. A collection of her poems was published in England while she was still a young woman.

Another writer of the Revolutionary period recorded his impressions of everyday American life. Born into an aristocratic French family, Michel Guillaume Crevecoeur became a soldier of f fortune, a world traveler, and a farmer. For fifteen years, he owned a plantation in Orange County, New Y ork, and his impressions of life there were published in London in 1782 as Letters from an American Farmer.

Perhaps the best known writing of the period outside the field of politics was done by Benjamin Franklin. His P oor Richard’s Almanac became familiar to most households in the colonies. A statesman, printer, author, inventor, and scientist, Franklin was a true son of the Enlightenment. His Autobiography, covering only his early years, is regarded as one of the finest autobiographies in any language.

By the early 1800‘s, America could boast a small body of national literature. The Native Americans has contributed haunting poetry and legends through their oral traditions. The puritans had written a number of powerful, inward-looking works. The statesmen of the Revolutionary period had produced political documents for the ages. A few poets and essayists had made a permanent mark on the literature of the young republic. There were, however, no American novels or plays of importance, and modern short story had yet to be invented.

VII. Analysis of literary works

1. Analysis of The poor Richard’s Almanac.

Benjamin Franklin created a character, poor Richard, in whose name the work appeared, and whose real existence was debated humorously and seriously. Scatted among the calculations, were many crisp sayings introduced b y the phrase ―As Poor Richard says,‖----sayings which have taken their place among the maxims of the world.

―Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep there.‖

―One today id worth two tomorrows‖

―Plow deep while sluggards sleep.‖

―An empty sack cannot stand upright.‖

―Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.‖

―He that by the plow would thrive

Himself must either hold or drive.‖

These and sources o similar homely proverbs were incorporated in the Almanac. It was Benjamin Franklin‘s idea to teach lessons of thrift to his

countrymen. Some of the sayings he coined entire, others he quoted from various sources. They ere finally sifted and collected in permanent form in a lengthy discourse called Father Abraham’s Speech, which was included in the Almanac of 1758 and found its way thus into well-nigh every home in America. Father Abraham’s Speech was translated into every European language, and even to this day continues to teach its useful lesson of industry, frugality, and honesty, the world over.

2. Analysis of The American crisis

Thomas Paine maintains that ―those‖ times will put men to a test. Those who will fight only during the summer and sunshine deserve no praise. We need soldiers who will fight anytime, who will make sacrifices for the noble cause of democratic revolution. Thomas Paine maintains that consolation foe those Americans who support the overthrow of tyranny is the belief that that they will win ―more glorious‖victory. In other words, people must appreciate what they believe in and fight hardest for. Britain‘s declaration that she may ―bind us in all cases whatsoever‖is nothing more than slavery, and only God may have such ―undiminished‖power. He believes that God will ―not give up ―or abandon a people who have so steadfastly tried to avoid war. Certainly Britain cannot look to God for guidance; criminals have as much reason to look for guidance as the British; in fact, they are criminals.

Thomas Paine quotes the Tory who states, ―Give me peace in my day‖. He is concerned only with immediate results so that he can reap the benefits, perhaps without care for the permanence of peace. Paine believes that the speaker should be willing to fight and suffer in his lifetime in order to insure a more permanent peace which his children may enjoy.

The British government is compared to a house thief who causes destruction of life and property and who must be stopped. He does not care in what form the thief exists. In any situation, ―if we reason to the root of things‖, we shall find no difference.

In short, The American Crisis is an Enlightenment, Deist document. Man relies on reason and indomitable optimism, not salvation, for deliverance from travail. However much the soldier, the scholar, the common man struggling for victory wants the support of god, he must rely on his devotion to his cause and to his fellow man first and foremost.

3. Analysis of Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence, adopted July 4, 1776, not only announced the birth of a new nation, also set forth a philosophy o human freedom which served as an important force in the western world. It rested upon particular grievances, but more, upon a broad base of individual liberty, of individual will, so cherished by Americans. Endurance of oppression could meet its threshold; after that, the people must form a new state. Its ideas inspired mass fervor for the American cause, for it instilled among the common people a sense of their own importance, and inspired struggle for personal freedom, self-government, and a dignified place in society. It is evident in American literature that Americans

protective of their freedoms, in however way they choose to interpret them.

In addition, Jefferson‘s purpose in writing is to make the experiment of free government so successful that it would be an example to the rest of the world and a moral force in the destiny of mankind. The principles of decentralization of authority, agrarian economy, public education and flexible laws were all by products of the central doctrine of Lockian perfectibility.

Against this doctrine and formal statement Alexander Hamilton and the other founders of the Federalist Party argued for a liberty which comes through submission to authority, in this case, a clear and firm system of civil formulated. Centralized government, an economy determined by financial and manufacturing rather than by agrarian interests, and firm laws strictly enforced were, in Hamilton‘s thinking the logical conclusions from a skepticism of man‘s basic goodness. Perhaps it is the very existence of conflicting ideas within a single practical frame of operation which, at times, makes American so dynamic. Man is not consistent in design or action, and the Constitution of the United States, with its added ―Bill of Rights‖by reflecting two such opposite views as those of Jefferson and Hamilton, probably conies as near to being a description of basic human nature as any document that lawmakers have formed. These views appear again and again, in different form, in America‘s national literature.