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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. From which port does William purpose to leave for New England before he breaks ties with his uncle?

2. How many times does Digby attempt to refuse to accompany Grafton from Bethel to meet her baggage in Springfield?

3. Which of the following character types does Karcher claim Cooper brought into American fiction?

4. Which of the following is described as “the apostle of New-England” (52)?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Karcher identify as the primary thrust of the Unitarianism to which Sedgwick converts (16)?

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. What does Karcher note as the fate of Sedgwick’s mother?

9. What does Karcher identify as the primary thrust and intent of the seduction plot, which had been the focus of the American women novelists prior to Sedgwick (12)?

10. Why does Mononotto note he is pleased to take Everell captive?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Consider Magawisca’s plea in her trial regarding her imprisonment, beginning with “‘Then,’ said Magawisca” and ending with “death or liberty” (352-53); the passage advances the idea that death is preferable to imprisonment. Does the novel support the idea? How so or not?

Essay Topic 2

Consider the assessment that “a danger just escaped, is more fearful than one untried” (294). Is the assessment accurate? What in the text and/or in experience suggests whether it is or not? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 3

The narrator remarks that “the rights of innocence were paramount to all other rights” (171). Does the novel as a whole agree with the assertion? What in the text shows the agreement or disagreements? How does it do so?

(see the answer keys)

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