Great Books Finals

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35 Terms

1
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Who first coined the term "Lost Generation," and what does it mean in the context of The Great Gatsby?

Gertrude Stein heard it from a garage owner, and Ernest Hemingway used it. It means disoriented or alienated young people after World War I, not disappeared.

2
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Which writers were part of the "Lost Generation" in 1920s Paris?

F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Ezra Pound, and Ernest Hemingway.

3
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What did the "Lost Generation" writers search for in their works?

A meaningful experience in love, writing, drink, and hedonism.

4
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How did Fitzgerald view the Jazz Age in his writing?

As an era of miracle and excess with defective moral values and an empty promise of a better life.

5
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What is The Great Gatsby about?

Gatsby's doomed dream of love and the doomed American Dream.

6
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Which Fitzgerald short story explores the tension between traditional feminine values and Jazz Age liberation?

"Bernice Bobs Her Hair."

7
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What themes does T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land explore?

Disintegration of culture, empty sex, and loss of spiritual meaning.

8
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What themes does Hemingway explore in The Sun Also Rises?

Love, death, and masculinity.

9
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How does John Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy relate to the American Dream?

It explores the American Dream through the stories of 12 characters.

10
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What economic and social changes characterized the Jazz Age in the 1920s?

New post-war prosperity centered on Wall Street, rise of new money, social mobility, but also moral emptiness and snobbery.

11
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What was the impact of the 18th Amendment on the culture depicted in The Great Gatsby?

It led to bootlegging and the rise of speakeasies.

12
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What supremacist view does Tom Buchanan express in The Great Gatsby?

That the white race must be protected from being "utterly submerged."

13
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How does Fitzgerald describe his novel The Great Gatsby?

As a "purely creative work" reflecting a sincere and radiant world.

14
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Describe Jay Gatsby’s character and lifestyle.

An enigmatic Midwesterner with a colossal mansion, rumored shady dealings, throwing decadent parties to win back Daisy Buchanan.

15
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What symbolic meaning does the color green hold in The Great Gatsby?

It represents the green light at Daisy's dock, symbolizing Gatsby's hopes and the American Dream's elusive future.

16
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What does Nick Carraway symbolize in the novel?

The narrator whose nuanced perceptions reflect on the past’s pull and the futility of progress.

17
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How was The Great Gatsby initially received?

Mixed reviews, poor sales, and Fitzgerald felt like a failure at his death.

18
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How is The Great Gatsby regarded today?

As one of the most significant US novels, admired for its moral exposure, prose, dialogue, and structure.

19
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Who was F. Scott Fitzgerald?

Born in 1896, dropped out of Princeton, married Zelda Sayre, chronicled Jazz Age, struggled with alcohol and died in 1940.

20
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What other significant novel did Fitzgerald write that explores his personal troubles?

Tender Is the Night.

21
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Who wrote The Little Prince and under what circumstances?

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote The Little Prince in New York after fleeing Nazi-occupied France during World War II.

22
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What literary category does The Little Prince belong to based on its context?

It is considered exile literature—written by an author displaced by war.

23
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Name other exile writers mentioned in the handout.

Joseph Roth, Bertolt Brecht, Stefan Zweig, Paul Celan.

24
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What tone is often evident in exile literature?

A somber, sad, and elegiac tone.

25
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How has The Little Prince been interpreted?

As a moral/philosophical fable, a children’s tale, an autobiographical fantasy, and a reflection of its times.

26
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What theme does the little prince’s alienness symbolize?

Moral philosophy that celebrates difference and critiques adult society.

27
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What does the narrator of The Little Prince do?

He is a pilot who crash-lands in the Sahara and meets the little prince.

28
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What do the baobab trees symbolize?

They are interpreted as a metaphor for the spreading “sickness” of Nazism.

29
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What lesson does the little prince give about seeing with the heart?

“Eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.”

30
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What is the main moral message of The Little Prince?

The value of human life and the importance of compassion, rationality, and tolerating differences.

31
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How does exile relate to the theme of childhood in the story?

Both are transitional states marked by loss, learning, and instability.

32
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What does Saint-Exupéry critique through his story?

The strangeness and destructiveness of the adult world, especially during war.

33
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What is the significance of the quote: “some terrible seeds... will bore right through a planet”?

It warns against ignoring dangers like Nazism until it is too late.

34
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What influenced Saint-Exupéry's writing of The Little Prince?

His experience as an aviator, exile from France, his troubled marriage, and World War II.

35
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How did Saint-Exupéry die?

He disappeared during a reconnaissance flight over the Mediterranean in 1944 and is believed to have been shot down.