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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. In what year, per Karcher (19), does Sedgwick meet a descendant of Eunice Williams?

2. In the context of the novel, the term “congeniality” carries which of the following meanings (53)?

3. The term “esculents” carries which of the following meanings (62)?

4. Which of the following is the birth-name of Faith Leslie?

5. To which Biblical patriarch is Martha Fletcher compared as she accompanies William to the area of Springfield (61)?

Short Essay Questions

1. What reactions does William Fletcher’s reserved manners prompt from his companions aboard the Arabella, and why, per the narrator (60)?

2. What reasons does the novel note for William Fletcher to have “fixed his residence a mile from the village” (62)?

3. Why does Karcher relate one early critic as stating that Sedgwick provides for early American women writers (10)?

4. What is the primary rhetorical appeal made in Karcher’s discussion of Sedgwick’s Redwood (17-18), and why is it the primary appeal?

5. In what way, per Karcher (27), do “‘Friendly’ whites like Hope and Everell” imperil native peoples?

6. Which historical antecedent does Karcher identify for Faith Leslie?

7. How is Bertha Grafton described at her first appearance in the novel (74)?

8. What reasons does Magawisca report her father citing for refusing the pardon of the English after the Pequod War (100)?

9. What does Karcher point out as a major contrast between Sedgwick’s depictions of indigenous / settler violence and her contemporaries’, such as Cooper (21)?

10. Prior to the attack on Bethel, how does Digby note that Everell and Oneco ridicule Grafton (108)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Early in the novel, the comment is made that “Liberty….from the hour that she tempted our first parents to forfeit paradise, hath ever worked mischief to our race” (52). Does the novel affirm or deny the assertion? What in the text indicates it? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

The narrator makes the comment that “we would fix our eyes on the bright halo that encircled the pilgrims’ head; and not mark the dust that sometimes sullied his garments” (sic, 211). Does the novel as a whole endorse taking such a position? What in the text suggests whether it does or not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Consider Winthrop’s comment that “private feelings must yield to the public good” (290). Does the novel as a whole agree or disagree with the comment? What text supports that position? How does it support the position?

(see the answer keys)

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