GRE Literature in English (REA) (42 page)

 

196.
(A)

This passage is from Dorothy Parker's
But the One On the Right.
In interior monologue, the speaker is thinking to himself—the reader only overhears the speaker's thoughts. Passages (D) and (E) are clearly dialogue, and while
(B)
and (C) are not overtly dialogue, they also do not offer the inner thoughts of the speaker.

 

197.
(D)

The Student is described by Chaucer. The “threadbare” coat is perhaps a clue to the correct answer, as is the line “Indentured long to logic and the gown.”

 

198.
(A)

A “benefice” is a position in the church. Answers (B) and (E) are directly contradicted by the next line, “thoughts of worldly office were not his.” Answers (C) and (D) are traps for more contemporary views on students.

 

199.
(D)

Both the subject and the horse are “anything but fat.” Answers (A) and (E) are in fact contradictory images, not parallel ones. There is no parallel drawn between the “enslaved” nature of the two (C), and answer (B) is simply a non sequitur.

 

200.
(B)

The writer says just before the cited Wordsworth poem: “Finally, the ‘scientific system of thought' in Wordsworth gives us at least such poetry as this, which the devout Wordsworthian accepts—.” The writer refers to this when he speaks of the poem's imagined popularity at a “Social Science Congress.”

 

201.
(C)

The use of modifiers like “very” and “most” mocks any sincerity about the subject—especially one as outrageous as cannibalism. “Fricassee” and “ragout” are almost comic in their bizarre implications. Outright sadism for its own sake has rarely been the stock and trade of great writing, so we must assume this description has a greater purpose, even if we are not familiar with the author's writing.

 

202.
(B)

A common belief that American colonials were less civilized than their English counterparts is used to underscore the author's preposterous suggestion that cannibalism is a way by which Irish overpopulation might be controlled. In fact, the author implies the opposite of (A) in order to sustain his sarcastic tone: he does not take seriously the belief that Americans are uncivilized. The proposition he is making should be taken in the same sarcastic vein.

 

203.
(B)

“Regard the writer's end” is the controlling line of thought within the passage. Choices (D) and (E) are concerned with the discovery of flaws while the passage asks that “trivial faults” are weighed against the greater message of the writer's piece. Choices (A) and (C) cannot be inferred from the passage.

 

204.
(B)

D. H. Lawrence in
Surgery for the Novel
—
Or a Bomb
claims that the serious novel is on its “death-bed”: “It is self-consciousness picked into such fine bits that the bits are most of them invisible, and you have to go by smell.” Lawrence feels that modern writers are too busy striving for accuracy to notice the impact that their works are missing.

 

205.
(E)

This passage is from Jonson's “Perfection in Small Things.” Like the lily, human life is short. All things that seem permanent are, in reality, transitory. To strive for the “great” is futile. Perfection can be found in the fleeting moments of man and nature.

 

206.
(A)

Jonson is also the author of “Ode on the Death of Sir H. Morison,” considered a fine imitation of Pindar. (B), (C), and (D) are variants of sonnets in which love of another is its primary theme.

 

207.
(B)

This passage is from the Puritan Milton's
Comus
. The Platonic Ideal (A) is based on the existence of a higher realm, of which this world is merely a pale imitation. Zoroastrianism (C) is a religion based in dualism, while Deism (D) is based on rational thinking. The Renaissance (E) involved a shift to humanistic thinking.

 

208.
(C)

In comparing the spider to a person, the moth to human clothing, and the mixture to a witch's broth, the author here places the natural world he is describing within the human world of the reader's experience. None of the creatures described in the poem display distinctly human characteristics [eliminate (A)], and the description is secondary to comparison of the objects to those of human use [eliminate (B) and (D)]. There is no variety of color in the passage (E).

 

209.
(D)

The answer is really rhetorical. The title of the poem is “Design,” and throughout the two stanzas there can be little doubt that the poet is saying, “Of course, there is great design in nature: let me show it to you.” Since the author is aware of the answer, answers (A), (C) and (E) can be eliminated. The tone of the last two lines is meant to comfort, so answer (B) can be eliminated as well.

 

210.
(A)

The author is analyzing how new writers are evaluated in relationship to tradition. Since the first sentence refers to the comparison of a writer to his or her peers, the choices which describe isolated evaluations, (B), (D), and (E), can be eliminated. The process refers to finding something new about a work, not pigeon-holing the work into a set period (C).

 

211.
(B)

The author of this passage counterposes what he has said by way of criticizing the critics with the comment that “if we approach a poet without this prejudice, we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously.”

 

212.
(D)

This is from Emerson. The concentration here on deed, rather than simply on nonconformity, is an indicator, as is its similarity to Thoreau. Since individuality by itself is not in fact a goal, choices (A) and (B) can be eliminated. The Age of Enlightenment (C) marked a newfound respect for science. The Beat Era (E) was marked by a dissatisfaction for contemporary society.

 

213.
(D)

These lines, which at first appear impossible, appear on closer reading, valid—the essence of paradox. The question here: why believe a lie, especially when that lie is that the person swears she tells the truth? (A) is a technique in which a part is used to represent the whole. Ellipsis (B) is a poetic trope in which an understood word is omitted. Pararhyme (C) is a rhyme in which the consonant sounds are shared but the vowel sounds are not, while prosody (E) is the study of systems of versification.

 

214.
(D)

In an artful series of clauses, the author lets the reader in on his thought process: to wit, although he is trying to be objective, he is obviously sentimentally remembering his island. Although statements (A) and (E) might be somewhat accurate, they fail to take into account the author's obvious struggle. Statements (B) and (C) are non sequiturs.

 

215.
(B)

It is from Irving's
History of New York.
Cooper (A) is more known for his depictions of American frontier life. Coleridge (D) is a British artist, not American, and Hawthorne (E) utilized the themes of sin and atonement in most of his works. Whitman (C) often described the same region as in the passage, but is not known for writing prose.

 

216.
(D)

It is from Poe's
Marginalia
. The tone of the passage does not match the controlled Romanticism of Keats (A). Sheridan (B) was a dramatist. Faulkner (C) was concerned about the accurate psychological portrayal of his characters. Trilling (E) was concerned with society's effect on the individual.

 

217.
(A)

While it might at first seem as if (C) is the addressee, the speaker calls on the winds to “crack” the plans of nature. Winds are personified and appear to represent a greater primeval force than simply what is connoted today by “wind” as the movement of air.

 

218.
(C)

The speaker is asking for that which creates “ingrateful” human beings to be destroyed. “Germens” is clearly meant here metaphorically to describe something intangible, which eliminates (A) and (E). Answers (B) and (D) are non sequiturs.

 

219.
(D)

The verbs describe actions: Blow / rage / singe / smite / spill. Answers (B) and (E) are grammatically incorrect, while (A) and (C) are broad and inaccurate.

 

220.
(B)

The speaker is King Lear. The use of the word “ungrateful” is perhaps the key clue here, as Lear suffers due to the ingratitude of his children.

 

221.
(C)

Jim Dixon and Yossarian are examples of anti-heroes, that is, protagonists who do not act in the traditionally heroic sense. Neither novel has a first-person (E) narrator, and unreliable narrators (A) are first-person narrators as well. Both novels are satiric rather than naturalist (B), and neither uses the convention of communication through letters (D).

222.
(E)

Emerson, Fuller, Very, and Thoreau all contributed to The Dial. Fuller was its first editor, Emerson its second.
The Dialwas
a periodical that served as a mouthpiece for the New England Transcendentalists.

 

223.
(A)

The frontier writers were known for their often humorous and colorful depictions of life in the developing West of the mid-l9th century. Jewett is a “local-colorist,” but her subject matter is Maine or New England.

 

224.
(D)

Maturin's novel of terror and mystery is
Melmoth the Wanderer
. Although Ann Radcliffe (E) is the most famous novelist of the Gothic period, she did not write
Melmoth the Wanderer
. Hawthorne (A), Bird (B), and Bunyan (C) did not write in the Gothic tradition.

 

225.
(C)

Gerard Manley Hopkins is generally considered to be the originator of sprung rhythm.

 

226.
(B)

This question may be difficult because (D) and (E) are also characters in the play—Prospero's daughter and his future son-in-law, respectively. (C) is a corruption of the name Romeo, and (A) is included as a false-lead.

 

227.
(E)

The passage, taken from James Joyce's
Ulysses,
seeks to capture and communicate the thoughts running through the mind of Stephen Dedalus. Joyce is generally held to be the first writer to use internal monologue throughout a novel.

 

228.
(C)

The keywords “imperialism” and “indigenous” should clue the reader that the critic is writing about exploration and colonialism. The contest between an external “civilizing force” and a resisting native population described in the analysis of
The Tempest
should further indicate that the subject here is colonialism and the politics involved in justifying it. Postcolonial criticism seeks to recover the lost or suppressed voices of oppressed subjects; the insertion of a quotation from Caliban helps focus our attention on one such voice. The other schools of criticism named are concerned more with contradictions and ambiguities internal to language [answers (A) and (B)], the interior development of subjects as gendered beings in response to trauma and loss (D), and the economic/class conflicts that are revealed by literature (E). While all of these are certainly relevant to Shakespeare and can be applied to
The Tempest,
none of their principles are systematically applied in this passage as are the basic tenets of postcolonial criticism.

 

229.
(E)

The law is often a central concern with Dickens; this is nowhere more true than in
Bleak House
, in which an obscure lawsuit has embroiled the families of the central characters for years. The specific plot implied details that should remind readers of
Bleak House
are the mention of the Chancery and the critique of missionary work.
Bleak House'
s Mrs. Jellyby is a famous Dickens character, who neglects her own house and children while she invests her time and efforts in moralistic missionary projects that involve little or no true charity for African countries. Those unfamiliar with the novel itself should be able to recognize Dickens in this passage as well, in particular the reference to the novel's concern with the address of social inequality and reform. While all other authors are to varying degrees also interested in social issues, none is as explicitly committed to the cause of reform and relief to the poor and marginalized as is Dickens.