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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was the title of the lecture series Emerson delivered in 1837?

2. How did Emerson characterize Samuel Taylor Coleridge?

3. What did Emerson do when he returned from the South?

4. How did the event described in the Prologue change Emerson's life?

5. Who was Emerson reading at the time he fell in love with Lydia Jackson?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did the birth of Emerson's first son change Emerson's intellectual interests?

2. What was Emerson's view of American literature?

3. What was Emerson's relation with Hume?

4. Why did Emerson break with the church?

5. How does Richardson describe Emerson as a student?

6. How was Emerson's "American Scholar" talk received?

7. What was Emerson's relationship with Carlyle?

8. How does Richardson describe the birth of American Transcendentalism?

9. What Quaker belief of Mary Rotch's did Emerson find compelling?

10. What was Emerson's relationship with the Abolition movement?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 2

What do you think is Emerson's legacy, and who do you think embodies his ideas or messages today? Was his most important legacy his writing or his lectures, his life, or the legend of his personality? What lines have come from him, and who carries those lines now?

Essay Topic 3

Evaluate your own reading of The Mind on Fire. Did you resist it, or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

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This section contains 710 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample