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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. Which of the following does Karcher note typifies Sedgwick’s notion of “peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial exchanges of goods and services” (22) between indigenous and settler populations?

2. How many Pequod were estimated by the settlers to have been killed in the Pequod War?

3. What name is given to William Fletcher’s estate outside Springfield?

4. The comment that “A boy’s courage is a keen weapon that wants temper” (89) offers an example of which of the following?

5. Whose scalp does the indigenous man who accompanies Digby to the Fletcher home carry (72)?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What prank does Martha Fletcher note in her letter that Everell plays on Grafton?

4. What justification for revenge is accorded to Mononotto (106)?

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

6. What does Karcher note as Sedgwick’s refocusing of “the emergent national literature” of her era (12)?

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

8. What does Karcher cite as Sedgwick’s major “influence[s] on the domestic novelists of the 1850s” (10)?

9. With what do Everell and Digby entertain themselves while on watch against attack (92)?

10. What does Sir William charge his nephew to do to be able to marry Alice?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Would Hope Leslie be likely to achieve BESTSELLER STATUS in the literary market of today? That is, would people in the United States be likely to buy it in large numbers? What in the text suggests that it would / not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

Throughout the novel, the Puritans are described as seeking and loving liberty, often in negative terms. What understand of their liberty does the novel advance? What in the text indicates that understanding? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

Sedgwick takes many words to describe the physical scenery of the natural world in her novel. What effect do the descriptions have on CURRENT readership? What in the text prompts that effect? How is the effect achieved?

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