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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 do the other employees think of Bartleby's refusals?

2. What has the uncle in "The Happy Failure" invented?

3. What do the Peruvian listeners force the storyteller to do to prove his story is true?

4. How does the narrator get into the London theater presentation?

5. How does the narrator accommodate the weakness of his oldest scrivener?

Short Essay Questions

1. What verb tenses does Melville use in "The Two Temples" to bring immediacy to the story?

2. What does the narrator say happens to one in command who discovers a subordinate who is "significantly his superior"?

3. What did Steelkilt's followers decide to do upon their release?

4. What skills are necessary for a scrivener?

5. What words does the narrator use to describe Bartleby when he first meets him?

6. What does Steelkilt demand to prevent a mutiny?

7. What does the captain decide to do with Steelkilt and those who followed him in insubordination?

8. How does the narrator respond the first time Bartleby answers a request with, "I would prefer not to"?

9. Why did the first seven of Steelkilt's men come out of their imprisonment?

10. Why does Melville call Redondo the "aviary of the ocean"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Melville was capable of a wide range of diction, or word choice, ranging from the staccato exclamations of "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo" to the alliterations of "The Encantadas," (an archipelago of aridities), to biblical allusions ("A virtue went out of him . . ." "I became a pillar of salt . . ."). Select one form of diction that impressed you about these stories, show examples of its use, and analyze its effectiveness.

Essay Topic 2

Melville is very fond of alliteration, such as " . . . mending rotten rail fences with their own rotten rails . . ." which is an incidence of "incipient idiocy." Find instances of this use of language and evaluate its effectiveness for you as a reader.

Essay Topic 3

Melville's elegaic pieces about the Marquis de Grandvin and others make clear the qualities he most admires. In your essay, use examples from these writings to show what qualities Melville thinks make for human greatness.

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