Literatura Norte Americana - Exercícios - Banco de Questões

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Literatura Norte-Americana 
Exercício 1 – Aula 1. 
1 – Anne Bradstreet's poem "Contemplations" reflects .... 
R = her struggle between world love and the desire of eternal life. 
2 – The establisher of Jamestown was the famous explorer and 
colonist 
R = John Smith 
3 – The Puritans were a group of people who were dissatisfied 
with... 
R = the Church of England. 
4 – Which of the following statements about the Puritans is not true? 
R = They believed that the clergy and government should act as 
intermediaries between the individual and God. 
5 – Annrf Bradstreet's first work was published in London was 
R = The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 2. 
1 – Some of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson's ideas about 
independence were not new. According to athe ideas of an English 
philosopher theory of ¿natural law,¿ human beings are ¿by nature 
free, equal and independent¿. These ideas belonged to: 
R = John Locke 
2 – Poe¿s verse, like that of many southerners, was very musical 
and strictly metrical. His best-known poem, in his own lifetime and 
today, is: 
R = The Raven (1845) 
3 – Thoreau¿s method of retreat and concentration resembles Asian 
meditation techniques. The resemblance is not accidental: like 
Emerson and Whitman, he was influenced by: 
R = Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 3. 
1 – Practical yet idealistic, hard-working and enormously successful, 
he recorded his early life in his famous Autobiography. He was the 
first great self-made man in America, a poor democrat born in an 
aristocratic age that his fine example helped to liberalize. His name 
is: 
R = Benjamin Franklin 
2 – In the first decades of the nineteenth century, a number of 
technological changes in the production process with profound 
impact on economic and social level brought a huge growth to the 
United States, but it was also one of several factors that were 
dividing Americans into two nations, the North and the South. These 
changes led to: 
R = The Industrial Revolution 
3 – ____________ is recognized as one of Emerson¿s most 
important works. At the time of its anonymous publication, however, 
it received little attention. In fact, during his lifetime, Emerson was 
better known as an orator than as an essayist. 
R = Nature 
4 – The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement 
marked by an emphasis on: 
R = rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of 
unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in 
place of monarchy. 
5 – Corset maker, cobbler, teacher, tax collector¿ he failed 
miserably at every line of work he attempted in his native England. 
This man achieved his successes with a pen only, but his 
contribution to the cause of freedom is incalculable. Common Sense 
inspired even the most reluctant to rebel against what he called the 
¿tyranny of Britain¿. He was: 
R = Thomas Paine 
6 – "The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of 
repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the 
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states". Another 
Enlightenment important figure wrote these lines in the Declaration 
of Independence. Who was this man and when was the Declaration 
published? 
R = Thomas Jefferson in 1776 
7 – During the late 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson gained fame for 
his lectures. While Emerson¿s ideas enraged some, they excited 
many others and helped create the transcendentalist movement, of 
which Emerson was the spokesperson. The core of 
transcendentalist thought was: 
R = Optimism, self-reliance, intuition, and idealism 
8 – Dickinson¿s 1,775 __________ continue to intrigue critics, who 
often disagree about them. Some stress her mystical side, some her 
sensitivity to nature; many note her odd, exotic appeal. Her clean, 
clear, chiseled poems are some of the most fascinating and 
challenging in American literature. 
R = poems 
 
Exercício 2 – Aula 3. 
1 – More than any other writer, Walt Whitman invented the myth of 
democratic America, he daringly turned upside down the general 
opinion that America was too brash and new to be poetic. He 
invented a timeless America of the: 
R = free imagination, peopled with pioneering spirits of all nations. 
2 – Toward the end of the 1700s, bold new ideas began to transform 
European civilization. In time, many of these ideas would become 
part of Romanticism, a movement in art and thought that dominated 
Europe and the United States throughout much of the 1800s. Some 
of the roots of this movement were: 
R = optimism and individualism, kinship with Nature and the power 
of darkness 
3 – _________________was a daring and even subversive book. It 
treated issues that were usually suppressed in 19thcentury America, 
such as the impact of the new, liberating democratic experience on 
individual behavior, especially on sexual and religious freedom. 
R = The Scarlet Letter 
4 – Walt Whitman¿s greatness is visible in many of his poems, 
among them: 
R = ¿Crossing Brooklyn Ferry¿ and ¿Leaves of Grass" 
5 – In the 1830s, the influence of Romanticism began to be felt in 
the United States. One result was ________________, a loosely 
organized movement that embodied the ideas of thinkers who were 
active in New England in the 1830s and 1840s. 
R = Transcendentalism 
6 – English literature from the days of the minstrels to the Lake 
Poets, Chaucer and Spenser and Shakespeare and Milton included, 
breathes no quite fresh and in this sense, wild strain. It is an 
essentially tame and civilized literature, reflecting: 
R = Greece and Rome. 
7 – Unlike many European groups, the Transcendentalists never 
issued a manifesto. They insisted on individual differences ¿ on the 
unique viewpoint of the individual. American Transcendental 
Romantics pushed radical individualism to the extreme. American 
writers often saw themselves as: 
R = lonely explorers outside society and convention. 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 4. 
1 – For __________________of the late 19th century, realism was 
not merely a literary technique: It was a way of speaking truth and 
exploding worn-out conventions. 
R = Mark Twain and other American writers 
2 – Huckleberry Finn has inspired countless literary interpretations. 
Clearly, the novel is a story of death, rebirth, and initiation. The 
escaped slave, Jim, becomes a father figure for Huck; in deciding to 
save Jim, Huck grows morally beyond the bounds of his slave-
owning society. It is Jim¿s adventures that initiate Huck into the: 
R = complexities of human nature and give him moral courage. 
3 – During the Age of Reform, an expanding network of roads and 
canals united different sections of the country. Two new inventions 
revolutionized transportation, they were: 
R = the steamboat and the railroad 
4 – In Mark Twain¿s masterpiece, Huckleberry Finn, from 1884, the 
main character was a son of __________, who was adopt by a 
respectable family. It was set in the ____________ village of St. 
Petersburg. Huck grows impatient with ________________ and 
plans to escape to ¿the territories¿ ¿ Indian lands. The ending gives 
the reader the counter-version of the classic American success 
myth: the open road leading to the pristine wilderness, away from 
the morally corrupting influences of ¿civilization.¿ 
R = an alcoholic bum / Mississippi River / civilized society 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 5. 
1 – The American Revolution, from a psychohistorical viewpoint, 
parallels an adolescent rebellion away from the parent-figure of 
England and the larger family of the British Empire. Puritanism and 
its Protestant offshoots may have further weakened the family by 
preaching that the individual¿s first responsibility was to save his or 
her own soul. These characteristics can be seen in the masterpieces 
of: 
R = Nathaniel Hawthorne 
2 – In the Romantic Period - 1820 to 1860,the Romance form is 
dark and forbidding, indicating how difficult it is to create an identity 
without a stable society. Most of the Romantic heroes die in the end: 
All the sailors except Ishmael are drowned in ____________, and 
the sensitive but sinful minister Arthur Dimmesdale dies at the end 
of _______________. 
R = Moby- Dick and The Scarlet Letter 
3 – Despite his patrician upbringing, proud family traditions, and 
hard work, _____________ found himself in poverty with no college 
education. At 19 he went to sea. His interest in sailors¿ lives grew 
naturally out of his own experiences, and most of his early novels 
grew out of his voyages. In these we see the young wide, 
democratic experience and hatred of tyranny and injustice of: 
R = Herman Melville 
4 – Choose the option which best completes the following sentence: 
In Moby Dick, Melville satirizes 
R = religious values 
5 – Moby Dick was a novel that could show the variety of ------------in 
the United States. 
R = races 
6 – Choose the option which best completes the following sentence: 
In Moby Dick, the sea represents a transitional place 
R = from an uncivilized to a civilized society 
7 – When we read Nathaniel Hawthorne's books , we can clearly 
identify him as a: 
R = Dark Romantic 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 6. 
1 – ______________is essentially a literary expression of 
determinism. Associated with bleak, realistic depictions of lower-
class life, determinism denies religion as a motivating force in the 
world and instead perceives the universe as a machine. 
R = Romanticism / Naturalism 
2 – Business boomed after the Civil War. It production had boosted 
industry in the North and given it prestige and political clout. It also 
gave industrial leaders valuable experience in the management of 
men and machines. The enormous natural resources ¿ iron, coal, 
oil, gold, and silver ¿ of the American land benefitted business. The 
new ______________, inaugurated in 1869, and the 
________________, which began operating in 1861, gave industry 
access to materials, markets, and communications. The constant 
influx of immigrants provided a seemingly endless supply of 
inexpensive labor as well. 
R = intercontinental rail system, transcontinental telegraph 
3 – The gap between rich and poor Americans widened greatly, and 
a few so-called robber barons became enormously wealthy as a 
result of the labors of their employees. Cities were______________, 
and the poor were forced to live in tenement houses that were 
crowded, dirty, and unsafe. 
R = overpopulated 
4 – In Realism,all the literary content is simple and not more 
important than the characters. The characters usually belong to the -
--------------. 
R = middle class. 
5 – Like _______________, _______________ first appeared in 
Europe. It is usually traced to the works of Honoré de Balzac in the 
1840s and seen as a French literary movement associated with 
Gustave Flaubert, Edmond and Jules Goncourt, Émile Zola, and 
Guy de Maupassant. 
R = Romanticism / Naturalism 
6 – In Huckleberry Finn, the author questioned 
R = the morality of white southerners 
7 – The rise of __________ in the United States can be traced to 
disillusionment following the Civil War. For many, the war had 
destroyed the Romantic view of humanity. 
R = Realism 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 7. 
1 – ____________ was an American novelist, short story writer, 
poet and journalist. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable 
works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American 
Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics 
as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. 
R = Stephen Crane 
2 – Choose the option which does not describe the Naturalism: 
R = Nature as a source of intuition 
3 – As industrialization grew, so did alienation. Characteristic 
American novels of the period " _________________ " depict the 
damage of economic forces and alienation on the weak or 
vulnerable individual. 
R = Stephen Crane¿s, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Jack 
London¿s, Martin Eden 
4 – Many consider The Age of Innocence to be the best of Edith 
Wharton's literature. It has been described as a "masterful portrait of 
desire and betrayal set in the New York of her youth." The book is a 
historical novel, describing the events of a New York long since 
changed. In fact, the original title of the book was 
________________. The novel describes her own adolescence. 
R = Old New York 
5 – When World War I began, Edith Wharton was in the middle of it. 
She traveled extensively by motorcar, helped untiringly with 
refugees in Paris during the first World War, and actually only 
returned once again in her lifetime to the United States to accept the 
Pulitzer prize for her novel: 
R = The Age of Innocence. 
6 – At the time of his death, Crane had become an important figure 
in American literature. He was nearly forgotten, however, until two 
decades later when critics revived interest in his life and work. 
Stylistically, Crane's writing is characterized by: 
R = descriptive vividness and intensity, as well as distinctive dialects 
and irony 
7 – "_______________ is the belief that the world around us is 
always improving. Some American Romantics presented an 
optimistic view of the possibility of human progress, based in part on 
a democratic confidence in the ability of ordinary individuals to better 
themselves, their political system, and society." 
R = Optimism 
8 – Naturalistic writers believed governmental laws were supposed 
to be interpreted through the objective study of human beings. 
Besides, the writers used this --------------- as raw material to write 
their novels. 
R = scientific method 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 8. 
1 – If the main theme of _____________¿s work is appearance and 
reality, ___________¿s constant concern is perception. In James, 
only self-awareness and clear perception of others yields wisdom 
and self-sacrificing love. 
R = Mark Twain / Henry James 
2 – All this psychoanalytic aspect of James´ painterly style is due to 
the influence and awareness owed much to his remarkable family. 
His father, for instance, was ..... 
R = a philosopher and theologian 
3 – Choose the option which best completes the following sentence: 
As a great prose writer in American Literature, James ´ artistic 
intentions and evolving literary style reflected the transition from the 
Victorian to ---------------------- in English literature. 
R = the Modern times 
4 – The figure in the carpet is a critical story interpreted as a 
paradigm for theories that believes literature never tells the truth and 
even that truth is nonsense. Consequently, the stories turn out to be 
--------, starting with names from Latin referring to truth, vere-care, 
for instance, was the name of the main character. In other words, it 
means a person who really cares about truth. 
R = ironical 
5 – Henry James made use of the technique of the stream of 
consciouness and that means he was interested in the ----------of the 
characters he created. 
R = minds 
6 – Henry James was one of the first famous novelists to use 
modernist, stream-of-consciousness techniques. That made him 
also use an aesthetic approach that reveled the process of 
"showing" rather than a simple act of --------------- 
R = telling 
7 – The altar of the dead is a short story by Henry James based on 
a fable of literally --------- significance. This work was first published 
in his collection entitled Terminations in 1895 after the story failed of 
magazine publication. 
R = life and death 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 9. 
1 – All characteristics bellow can be applied to Edith Wharton's 
personality, EXCEPT for: 
R = charming 
2 – The Age of Innocence written by Edith Wharton, a realist 
American writer, was published in-------and won the Pulitzer Prize. 
R = 1920 
3 – TheAge of Innocence writen by Edith Wharton is a brilliant, 
sharply ironic portrayal of the changing scene of fashionable 
American life in-------- 
R = Old New York 
4 – Edith Wharton broke out of the conventional views of her time 
becoming the first woman to win the ___________________ for 
fiction. 
R = Pulitzer Prize 
 
Exercício 1 – Aula 10. 
1 – In the options below, choose what are novels from Toni 
Morrison: 
R = Beloved / Amanda 
2 – Edgar Allan Poe, Samuel Beckett, and Herman Melville have 
also had a strong influence on Auster's writing. Not only do their 
characters reappear in Auster's work (such as William Wilson in City 
of Glass or Hawthorne's Fanshawe in The Locked Room, both from 
The New York Trilogy), Auster also uses variations on the ----------- 
of these writers. 
R = themes 
3 – All the following are Auster's works EXCEPT for... 
R = The Other Two