Right click for a "pdf" print-friendly version of this
file
HUM 3306: History of
Ideas--The Age of Enlightenment to the Age of Anxiety
Fall 2007/
Prof. Harvey
See Midterm
Instructions sheet for full instructions. Here is a sample
passage and response from another course (not using a book in our
class): note how the response places/interprets the passage in the
larger context of the text from which it is taken:
The Passage:
"When the sun was dropping
low, Antonia came up the big south draw with her team. How much
older she had grown in eight months! ... She wore the boots her
father had so thoughtfully taken off before he shot himself, and his
old fur cap. Her outgrown cotton dress switched about her calves,
over her boottops. She kept her sleeves rolled up all day, and her
arms and throat were burned as brown as a sailor's. Her neck came
up strongly out of her shoulders, like the bole of a tree out of the
turf. One sees that draught-horse neck among the peasant women in
all old countries."
The Response:
(144 words)
After her father's
suicide, Antonia takes on his aspirations by laboring on the land,
putting aside her own dreams. She does "man's" labor by necessity,
and there is no room for Victorian notions of decorum or
femininity. Jim seems in awe of this exotic immigrant girl who puts
her heart and soul into all she does, who increasingly becomes to
him, with her mixture of innocence and experience, an earth-mother
type figure. She is both exotic and real with a warmth and light
that is unique. The earth-mother image connects with other images
that associate Antonia with the vibrant fields, a set of pastoral
descriptions that promise fertility and renewal--in place of images
of cold and death (her father's frozen corpse, the grisly wolf
scene). Her father was alienated as an immigrant, but Antonia,
without losing her ethnic background, merges with the land.
MIDTERM QUESTIONS
1.
Again, if he would give his
nuts for a piece of metal, pleased with its colour, or exchange his
sheep for shells, or wool for a sparkling pebble or a diamond, and
keep those by him all his life, he invaded not the right of others;
he might heap up as much of these durable things as he pleased; the
exceeding of the bounds of his just property not lying in the
largeness of his possession, but the perishing of anything uselessly
in it. And thus came in the use of money; some lasting thing
that men might keep without spoiling, and that, by mutual consent,
men would take in exchange for the truly useful but perishable
supports of life. . . . But, since gold and silver, being little
useful to the life of man, in proportion to food, raiment, and
carriage, has its value only from the consent of men- whereof labour
yet makes in great part the measure- it is plain that the consent of
men have agreed to a disproportionate and unequal possession of the
earth- I mean out of the bounds of society and compact; for in
governments the laws regulate it; they having, by consent, found out
and agreed in a way how a man may, rightfully and without injury,
possess more than he himself can make use of by receiving gold and
silver, which may continue long in a man's possession without
decaying for the overplus, and agreeing those metals should have a
value.
2. Secondly: I
answer, such revolutions happen not upon every little mismanagement
in public affairs. Great mistakes in the ruling part, many wrong and
inconvenient laws, and all the slips of human frailty will be borne
by the people without mutiny or murmur. But if a long train of
abuses, prevarications, and artifices, all tending the same way,
make the design visible to the people, and they cannot but feel what
they lie under, and see whither they are going, it is not to be
wondered that they should then rouse themselves, and endeavour to
put the rule into such hands which may secure to them the ends for
which government was at first erected, and without which, ancient
names and specious forms are so far from being better, that they are
much worse than the state of Nature or pure anarchy; the
inconveniencies being all as great and as near, but the remedy
farther off and more difficult.
3A. [ANSWER EITHER A or B] To the honour of humanity, I knew
several gentlemen who managed their estates in this manner; and they
found that benevolence was their true interest. And, among many I
could mention in several of the islands, I knew one in Montserrat
whose slaves looked remarkably well, and never needed any fresh
supplies of negroes; and there are many other estates, especially in
Barbadoes, which, from such judicious treatment, need no
fresh stock of negroes at any time. I have the honour of knowing a
most worthy and humane gentleman, who is a native of Barbadoes, and
has estates there This gentleman has written a treatise on the usage
of his own slaves. He allows them two hours for refreshment at
mid-day; and many other indulgencies and comforts, particularly in
their lying; and, besides this, he raises more provisions on his
estate than they can destroy; so that by these attentions he saves
the lives of his negroes, and keeps them healthy, and as happy as
the condition of slavery can admit. I myself, as shall appear in the
sequel [i.e. in another chapter of Equiano’s memoirs], managed an
estate, where, by those attentions, the negroes were uncommonly
cheerful and healthy, and did more work by half than by the common
mode of treatment they usually do.
3B. In short, the fair as well as black people
immediately styled me by a new appellation, to me the most desirable
in the world, which was Freeman, and at the dances I gave my Georgia
superfine blue clothes made no indifferent appearance, as I thought.
Some of the sable females, who formerly stood aloof, now began to
relax and appear less coy; but my heart was still fixed on London,
where I hoped to be ere long. So that my worthy captain and his
owner, my late master, finding that the bent of my mind was towards
London, said to me, 'We hope you won't leave us, but 'that you will
still be with the vessels.' Here gratitude bowed me down; and none
but the generous mind can judge of my feelings, struggling between
inclination and duty. However, notwithstanding my wish to be in
London, I obediently answered my benefactors that I would go in the
vessel, and not leave them; and from that day I was entered on board
as an able-bodied sailor, at thirty-six shillings per month, besides
what perquisites I could make. My intention was to make a voyage or
two, entirely to please these my honoured patrons; but I determined
that the year following, if it pleased God, I would see Old England
once more, and surprise my old master, Capt. Pascal. . . .
4.
[I would like you try to complete Frankenstein so you can answer
this response; however if you have time management issues, you may
skip this response and respond to both of the Romantic poems in
response #5 below instead]. "How can I move thee? Will no entreaties cause
thee to turn a favorable eye upon thy creature, who implores thy
goodness and compassion. Believe me, Frankenstein: I was
benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity: but am I not
alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me, what hope
can I gather from your fellow-creatures, who owe me nothing? they
spurn and hate me. The desert mountains and dreary glaciers
are my refuge [now]."
5. For this you have the option of
interpreting one of two Romantic era poems.
Do either A: Provide a mini-interpretation of the poem that is
about a bird. Read the caution for "B" below.
Or do B: Below are a set of lines from one of the
Romantic poets you've been reading. Basically, you should just
provide a mini-interpretation of the poem, but try to emphasize the
key lines below. And try to fit the poem into the larger
context of the "history of ideas". This passage gives you wide
latitude; please, please resist looking up interpretations on the
internet. I've read them all, and will know if you are
cheating (I hate giving warnings like
this; but plagiarism is a real problem, so I have to!).
Almost suspended, we are laid asleep
In body, and become a living soul;
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things....
And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.