View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Steelkilt threaten to do if he is flogged by the captain?

2. How does Steelkilt respond to Radney's request that he sweep the deck?

3. With what alliteration does Melville describe the islands?

4. How does Bartleby respond to the other employees?

5. What is the profession of the narrator of Bartleby?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do the sailors in "The Encantadas" do with tortoises?

2. Why does the narrator say that pity turns into repulsion?

3. How does the poet Blandmour feel about poverty in "Poor Man's Pudding"?

4. What does the author of "Poor Man's Pudding" and "Rich Man's Crumbs" pray that Heaven will save him from?

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

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

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

8. In "Rich Man's Crumbs," why is the narrator called a "graceless ragamuffin"?

9. What purpose does the circle of listeners serve in "The Town-Ho's Story"?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Melville employs a wide variety of stylistic techniques in his writing, including a poetic use of repetition. In "I and My Chimney," for example, he writes of " . . . a mysterious door, entering to a mysterious closet; and here I keep mysterious cordials of a choice, mysterious flavor." In your essay, analyze this and other examples of artful repetition you find in these stories.

Essay Topic 2

Melville uses brief sketches to address large issues of social justice. Select two of the stories that work together, such as "The Paradise of Bachelors" and "The Tartarus of Maids," or "The Two Temples," to analyze the social issues addressed in those comparisons.

Essay Topic 3

Melville's purposes in writing are both artistic and moralistic. Select a story in which you see his purpose as basically one or the other, and give examples from the story in your essay that support your thesis.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 767 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample