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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 did Mencken think about monogamy, as revealed in "Cavia Cobaya"?

2. According to Mencken, what was the Union fighting for in the Civil War?

3. What was the subject of Walt Whitman's "Democratic Vistas"?

4. Which is NOT one of the reasons winters were difficult in 1880s Baltimore?

5. What was the nature of the Prince of Wales story Mencken tells in "The Art Eternal"?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "Gore in the Caribees," what becames of the rebel leader, Jose Miguel Gomez?

2. What criticisms did Mencken level at General John Pershing?

3. What was Mencken's ideal form of government?

4. What was Mencken's remedy for curing the ills of modern religions?

5. What was Mencken's opinion of Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The American Scholar"?

6. What was the chief problem of a Baltimore summer, according to Mencken in "The Baltimore of the Eighties"?

7. Why was 1880s Baltimore such a loud town?

8. How did Charlie get craftsmen to work at the jail in "Recollections of Notable Cops"?

9. What circumstances drove Mencken away from attending the Y. M. C. A.?

10. According to Mencken, Theodore Dreiser had what emotional effect on the reader?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mencken was interested in reviving an American intellectual movement.

A) Who were the forefathers of this movement? What texts are important?

B) What does Mencken feel is the current state of the American intellectual movement?

C) What can be done to further the movement?

Essay Topic 2

The nature of art, and especially of writing, is a subject that concerned Mencken.

A) What argument does Mencken make in "The Artist"? How is this argument related to Mencken's anti-war stance?

B) What argument does Mencken make in "The Author at Work"? How are we to reconcile his argument with the fact that, naturally, Mencken is himself a writer?

Essay Topic 3

Mencken could be said to operate from an anti-war stance, as in "Star-Spangled Man."

A) How does Mencken make this bias clear? Cite examples from the text.

B) What is Mencken's opinion of World War I? How was the war started? Why might it have been prevented?

C) Is Mencken's anti-war bias explicit or implicit? Cite examples.

(see the answer keys)

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