American Lit Spring Final Study Guide

American Lit. Spring Final Study Guide

75 multiple choice- 2 written

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Concepts to understand:

The genre of the piece

Regionalism

The controversy that surrounded the piece’s original publication and its continued controversy

Racism, characters that don't follow normative behaviors

The setting, both time and place

Pre civil war mississippi river in american south; missouri; antebellum period

Huck’s moral development

He starts to follow his conscience instead of society’s rules

Jim and his impact on Huck

Jim become a father figure and helps Huck grow morally

Human indecency

Twain’s meaning of the word “sivilized”

Society’s hypocritical rules and expectations

Mocking civilized people

Who said the following quotation: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn. It's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that.”

Ernest hemingway

Twain’s feelings on literature and what genre of literature he makes fun of

Romantic literature and unrealistic adventure stories

Portrays tom sayer as foolishly romantic

Characters to be familiar with

Huck Finn

Narrator and main character who escapes society

Tom Sawyer

Huck’s imaginative friend who romanticizes adventure

Jim

An escaped enslaved man traveling with huck

Pap Finn

Huck’s abusive and alcoholic father

Judge Thatcher

Guardian of Huck’s money

Tries to sober up pap – does not go well – only thing that will help him his shotgun

The Widow Douglas

Women who tries to civilize huck

Adopts Huck

Miss Watson

Widow douglas’s strict sister and jim’s owner

The Mississippi River (as a character)

Peace, freedom, escape, and change

Run into thieves and criminals on the river

The Great Gatsby

Concepts to understand

The genre of the piece

Modernism

F. Scott Fitzgerald and how he incorporated his personal life into the novel

Gatsby and daisy’s relationship reflects fitzgerald’s relationship with zelda (his wife)

1920s and what this time period meant to Fitzgerald as well as America in general

Wealth, excess, materialism, and moral decline

Leading to eventual crash Fitzgerald kind of predicts with Gatsby’s death

The style of narrative Fitzgerald builds

Frame narrative - character in the story telling the reader the story

Narrator nick carraway

The “American Dream” and how Fitzgerald deals with this concept

Belief that anyone can achieve success and happiness through hard work

As corrupted by wealth and materialism

Never satisfied, chasing wealth, unreachable, gatsby chasing but never reaching it (thinking daisy would bring him happiness)

Morality and the morals Fitzgerald presents in 1920’s New York

Most wealthy characters act selfishly and irresponsibly

Tom and daisy are immoral

Gatsby’s obsession with wealth can be considered immoral

Baz Luhrmann’s film and his representation of the novel

emphasizing excess and chaos

Sticks to narrative plot points

Religion, or a lack thereof, and how Fitzgerald presents the role of faith in people’s lives during the 1920’s

Faith is mostly lacking, showing moral emptiness

Characters to be Familiar with

Nick Carraway

Narrator and Gatsby's neighbor

Jay Gatsby

A wealthy man obsessed with daisy

Daisy Buchanan

Gatsby’s former love and Tom’s wife

Tom Buchanan

Daisy’s wealth and arrogant husband

Jordan Baker

A dishonest profession golfer

nicks love interest

Myrtle Wilson

Tom’s mistress

George Wilson

Myrtle’s husband who owns a garage

Meyer Wolfsheim

Gatsby’s criminal business associate

Rigged the baseball game

The Catcher in the Rye

Concepts to understand

The controversy surrounding the piece after its publication

Profanity, language, sex

Famous murderers have claimed this book inspired them

The setting and its relevance to Holden’s situation

New york city; pennsylvania