View a FREE sample

This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What other American literature does Marx say exemplifies the three-stage theme he identified in Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'?
(a) Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
(b) Morrison's Beloved.
(c) Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
(d) Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher.

2. What did the settlers find appealing about the New World?
(a) It was unsoiled by civilization.
(b) Everything was free for the taking.
(c) They could buy land so cheap from the natives.
(d) It was theirs by right of conquest.

3. What is the first stage of life that Marx describes through Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'?
(a) Life in the city.
(b) Return to nature.
(c) Life in nature.
(d) Life in religion.

4. How was Hawthorne's description interrupted?
(a) By a blue jay.
(b) By an Indian.
(c) By a merchant.
(d) By a railroad whistle.

5. What was it that Jefferson described as a threat to the moral center of democracy?
(a) Industrialism.
(b) European military power.
(c) Native Americans.
(d) Corruption.

6. What human structure did Barlowe describe America in terms of?
(a) Heaven.
(b) Garden.
(c) City.
(d) Church.

7. What kind of lifestyle does Marx say Americans want?
(a) Faster.
(b) More complex.
(c) More elegant.
(d) Simpler.

8. What sources does Marx suppose Shakespeare read for 'The Tempest'?
(a) Accounts of travel to the Pacific islands.
(b) Accounts of travel to India.
(c) Accounts of travel to the New World.
(d) Accounts of African tribes.

9. What piece by Nathaniel Hawthorne does Marx treat as emblematic of American pastoralism?
(a) The Marble Faun.
(b) Sleepy Hollow Notes.
(c) Mosses from an Old Manse.
(d) The Celestial Railroad.

10. When did a uniquely American pastoral image emerge?
(a) At colonization.
(b) Eighteenth century.
(c) Nineteenth century.
(d) Seventeenth century.

11. What is the heart of the pastoral ideal?
(a) To live out a primitive existence.
(b) To live in the lap of nature.
(c) To turn nature into an industrial resource.
(d) To transform nature into an ordered place.

12. What is the second stage of life that Marx describes through Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'?
(a) Return to the city.
(b) Life in nature.
(c) Return to nature.
(d) Life in the city.

13. What does an individual gain by passing through these three spatial stages?
(a) Maturity.
(b) Legitimacy as an American.
(c) A high ground in terms of religious experience.
(d) A middle ground between city and country.

14. What virtues would the Jeffersonian man strike a balance between?
(a) Poetry and technology.
(b) Literature and action.
(c) Urbaneness and wilderness.
(d) Nature and civility.

15. What did the new world fail to offer newcomers, in typical accounts?
(a) Wealth.
(b) Civilization.
(c) Art.
(d) Power.

Short Answer Questions

1. What do Americans abandon when they are under the influence of the sentimental pastoral ideal?

2. For what occasion did Jefferson write his Notes on Virginia?

3. What does Marx say is the 'sentimental' pastoral ideal?

4. What does Marx say is the leading image of industrialism?

5. What associations were suggested by Marx's leading symbol of industrialism?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 501 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample