American Lit Exam 1
Rebecca Harding Davis correct answers -"Life in the Iron Mills" (1861)
-ahead of her time
-both realistic and sentimental (typical of 19th century literature)
-Harding makes the steel town sound like Hell itself ("like a street in Hell"). The town
itself is forcing the people to be dehumanized.
-"Reform is born of need, not pity" -Mitchell is implying that reform should be from the
bottom up not the top down.
Realism correct answers -refers to literary fiction that was rooted in the observation and
documentation of the details of everyday life
-by representing a diversity of social classes and speech and manners literary realism
could foster a shared democratic culture
-naturalism and regionalism
William Dean Howells correct answers -"the Dean of American letters"
-literary realism had a particular function in the democratic society of the United States
-his ideas set the agenda for the American literary establishment in his time
-wrote reviews and supported American writers like Charles Chestnutt, Sarah Orne
Jewett, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, Hamlin Garland,
Henry James, and Mark Twain
What are the two major tenets of realism? correct answers 1. realistic and plausible
2. present culture or society (critical or observational)
What were 2 concerns that shaped politics during the Gilded Age? correct answers -
Industrialists and other men were enriching themselves at the expense of the public
-Corruption and dishonesty in the government
muckrakers correct answers journalists who exposed the situations of the Gilded Age.
Teddy Roosevelt compared them to men who raked muck.
-Ida Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Co.
-Jacob Riis
-Upton Sinclair -> Meat Packing Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act
The Spoils Act correct answers Rewarding political supporters with government jobs ->
the Pendleton Act
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 correct answers Forbade rebates and set up the
Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee Railroads
Francis Willard correct answers President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union
, Carrie Chapman Catt correct answers Worked to win women suffrage state by state
Alice Paul correct answers Forceful suffragist who met with President Woodrow Wilson.
Believed the US was a failed democracy because women were not allowed to vote
19th Amendment correct answers -more voter rights
-recall: ability to vote someone out of office
-initiative: a process that allows voters to a push a bill before a state legislature
-referendum: a way for people to vote directly on a proposed new law
Ida B. Wells correct answers African American journalist who campaigned against mob
violence aimed at African Americans
Mutualistas correct answers self-help groups formed by Mexican Americans
Gentleman's Agreement correct answers -1907 Roosevelt made an agreement with
Japan that if they would stop sending workers he would allow Japanese women to join
their husbands
Reconstruction correct answers re imagination of what it meant to be American
-immigrants were coming from Southern and Eastern Europe which had not been
common place before
"Editha" correct answers -William Dean Howells, 1905
-characteristically explores the moral failure of individuals who have been corrupted by
their culture's worst values
-loosely based off of the Spanish American War (1898-99)
-supposed to be a satire: exaggeration
-Editha thinks the war is "glorious"
-George despised and abhorred the war at first
-Editha wanted George to do something to "win" her
-Editha says the war is an act of "Providence" and thinks it is a "holy war" of "liberty and
humanity"
-Editha writes George a letter saying she cannot love a man who is not willing to fight
for America's honor
-George went and got drunk with the other men and was elected Captain and joined up
-he was a "convent of war"
-George's father lost an arm in the Civil War and his mother raised him to think that "war
a fool"
-Editha "felt safe for him through the strength of what she called her love. What she
called her God"
naturalism correct answers -grew from and overlapped with literary realism
-obligation to bring social conflict to the page with more of an emphasis on the genuine
violence that was seen everywhere in the ruthless, modern world
Rebecca Harding Davis correct answers -"Life in the Iron Mills" (1861)
-ahead of her time
-both realistic and sentimental (typical of 19th century literature)
-Harding makes the steel town sound like Hell itself ("like a street in Hell"). The town
itself is forcing the people to be dehumanized.
-"Reform is born of need, not pity" -Mitchell is implying that reform should be from the
bottom up not the top down.
Realism correct answers -refers to literary fiction that was rooted in the observation and
documentation of the details of everyday life
-by representing a diversity of social classes and speech and manners literary realism
could foster a shared democratic culture
-naturalism and regionalism
William Dean Howells correct answers -"the Dean of American letters"
-literary realism had a particular function in the democratic society of the United States
-his ideas set the agenda for the American literary establishment in his time
-wrote reviews and supported American writers like Charles Chestnutt, Sarah Orne
Jewett, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, Hamlin Garland,
Henry James, and Mark Twain
What are the two major tenets of realism? correct answers 1. realistic and plausible
2. present culture or society (critical or observational)
What were 2 concerns that shaped politics during the Gilded Age? correct answers -
Industrialists and other men were enriching themselves at the expense of the public
-Corruption and dishonesty in the government
muckrakers correct answers journalists who exposed the situations of the Gilded Age.
Teddy Roosevelt compared them to men who raked muck.
-Ida Tarbell, The History of the Standard Oil Co.
-Jacob Riis
-Upton Sinclair -> Meat Packing Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act
The Spoils Act correct answers Rewarding political supporters with government jobs ->
the Pendleton Act
Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 correct answers Forbade rebates and set up the
Interstate Commerce Commission to oversee Railroads
Francis Willard correct answers President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union
, Carrie Chapman Catt correct answers Worked to win women suffrage state by state
Alice Paul correct answers Forceful suffragist who met with President Woodrow Wilson.
Believed the US was a failed democracy because women were not allowed to vote
19th Amendment correct answers -more voter rights
-recall: ability to vote someone out of office
-initiative: a process that allows voters to a push a bill before a state legislature
-referendum: a way for people to vote directly on a proposed new law
Ida B. Wells correct answers African American journalist who campaigned against mob
violence aimed at African Americans
Mutualistas correct answers self-help groups formed by Mexican Americans
Gentleman's Agreement correct answers -1907 Roosevelt made an agreement with
Japan that if they would stop sending workers he would allow Japanese women to join
their husbands
Reconstruction correct answers re imagination of what it meant to be American
-immigrants were coming from Southern and Eastern Europe which had not been
common place before
"Editha" correct answers -William Dean Howells, 1905
-characteristically explores the moral failure of individuals who have been corrupted by
their culture's worst values
-loosely based off of the Spanish American War (1898-99)
-supposed to be a satire: exaggeration
-Editha thinks the war is "glorious"
-George despised and abhorred the war at first
-Editha wanted George to do something to "win" her
-Editha says the war is an act of "Providence" and thinks it is a "holy war" of "liberty and
humanity"
-Editha writes George a letter saying she cannot love a man who is not willing to fight
for America's honor
-George went and got drunk with the other men and was elected Captain and joined up
-he was a "convent of war"
-George's father lost an arm in the Civil War and his mother raised him to think that "war
a fool"
-Editha "felt safe for him through the strength of what she called her love. What she
called her God"
naturalism correct answers -grew from and overlapped with literary realism
-obligation to bring social conflict to the page with more of an emphasis on the genuine
violence that was seen everywhere in the ruthless, modern world
