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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. What former British Prime Minister does Smith reference at the end of “The American Exception”?
2. What does Smith say we had before the pandemic instead of death?
3. What date was the speech Smith references at the start of “The American Exception”?
4. In “The American Exception,” Smith says that Americans attacked death as a series of what?
5. Who did people “thank God for” (16) after the pandemic when, Smith says, they were not seen as worthy of a $15/ hour minimum wage prior to the pandemic?
Short Essay Questions
1. Whose speech does “The American Exception” begin with and what it is in regards to?
2. How do “defenders of art typically justify its existence” (21) according to Smith?
3. What does Smith say about what disaster demands at the start of “The American Exception”?
4. What does Smith say was missing from the American concept of death in “The American Exception”?
5. Despite a plague's inability to discriminate, Smith says what about the structure of America’s hierarchy?
6. What does Smith say the country had begun to learn or discuss in regards to privilege prior to the virus?
7. In what way does Smith agree with Trump’s sentiment that prior to the pandemic “we had no death” (12)?
8. What is one of the societal issues Smith says the pandemic lockdown has forced many people to face?
9. What does Smith compare the way in which she packs her free time to at the start of “Peonies’?
10. What does Smith say she does not need “a Freudian” to tell her regarding herself and the two other women her age staring at the tulips in Jefferson Market Garden?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Write an essay analyzing the way in which Smith and her mother try to create some kind of normalcy during the pandemic lockdown in “An Elder at the 98 Bus Stop.” How do they interact? What do they discuss? How is this attempt at normalcy possible or impossible?
Essay Topic 2
Write an essay exploring how Smith’s ideas about femininity and womanhood have evolved over time as expressed in “Peonies.”
Essay Topic 3
Write an essay exploring what you learn about Smith’s character based on each of the stories in Intimations. What type of person is she? Consider race, class, occupations, interactions with others, and anything else you have gleaned about her from the stories. Use examples from several of the stories to support your analysis.
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This section contains 662 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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