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

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Poe call Longfellow?

2. Why does Williams feel that women especially appreciated Burr?

3. What does Williams say that American families cheat their daughters out of by trying to frighten them into delaying the loss of their virginity?

4. Who raises Sam Houston during the early years of his life?

5. Why does John Paul Jones write to Benjamin Franklin in "Battle Between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis"?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the characters of Thomas Morton and Cotton Mather. How are the two men similar? How are they different? Could they have gotten along if they had lived in the same community? Why or why not? Use evidence from In the American Grain to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

In the Introduction, Horace Gregory writes that "History is a humiliating subject for any man to think of knowing...The desire to know history is a near relative of the desire to know truth, and that is where, for most of us, a pit lies waiting." Does William Carlos Williams avoid the pit, or fall into it? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Does Williams admire Sir Walter Raleigh? Why or why not? Support your answer with evidence from In the American Grain.

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This section contains 311 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample