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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 do complex pastoralists recognize, in Marx's account?

2. What does modern man hope for, in spite of industrialism?

3. How many Americans lived on farms by the end of the 19th century?

4. What should man do in nature, in Thoreau's vision?

5. What does Marx say about man's hopes for nature?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Tench Coxe's contribution to the American pastoral ideal?

2. How did Thoreau reconcile machines and nature?

3. What is the role of industry in Melville's Moby Dick?

4. What is the purpose of an epilogue?

5. How did Emerson reconcile machines and nature?

6. What does Marx say the ship Pequod symbolizes in Melville's Moby Dick?

7. What was John Orvis' reaction to industrialism?

8. What was Mark Twain's stance on technology and nature in Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?

9. How would you describe the genre shift at the end of 'The Machine in the Garden'?

10. How does Marx categorize modern man's attitude toward the pastoral ideal in terms of the authors he has analyzed?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write a review of Marx's 'The Machine in the Garden'. What did Marx set out to do in the book, and how did he do it? Did he accomplish his goals? Did he fulfill all his promises? Did he leave questions unanswered? Were there problems or contradictions in the work that undermined it?

Essay Topic 2

The Bible is frequently cited as a source for the colonists' belief that they had reached a promised land where they had to have dominion and make a city on the hill, a garden out of the wilderness. Trace one biblical imperative through a few works of pastoral ideal. How does the biblical idea express itself in different works?

Essay Topic 3

What is the value of farming today? What ideological value does the small farm have? What is the reality of farming--is it agribusiness, or are small farms making a comeback? What forces are affecting the shape of farms in America? Is this a result of shifts in American pastoral ideology, or is it driving a new kind of pastoral ideology?

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