The Final Exam is worth 100 points.  It consists of 3 obligatory sections.  Section A is a take-home essay that you will bring to class with you for the exam session and attach to the rest of the exam, which you will take in-class.  Sections B and C will be administered as an in-class closed-book exam.  Altogether, you will write 2 short essays (worth 25 points apiece) and a series of briefer answers (worth 25 points).  Each question you write upon in Sections A, B, C, and D must be upon a different story.  

The following information concerns only Section A, the out-of-class essay portion of the exam.  (You should also consult the General Prep Sheet for the Final Exam and the Detailed Prep Sheet for the In-Class Portion of the Final Exam.)

Students in both sections may attend either of the two final exam sessions scheduled for Baker's sections of the course.  (Both will take place in our regularly-scheduled classroom -- Eisenhower 012.)  The dates and times are:

• Monday, 12 May, 4:10 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
• Thursday, 15 May, 11:50 a.m. - 1:40 p.m.

Option 1.  Choose one of the following stories.  (Remember that you will not be able to write upon this story during the in-class portion of the exam.)

• Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews" (p. 1494)
• Wolff's "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" (p. 1722)
• Barth's "Night-Sea Journey" (p 138)
• Borges's "The Garden of Forking Paths" (p. 177) Jackson's "The Lottery" (p. 865)
• Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" (p. 954)
• Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"
• O'Connor's "Good Country People" (p. 1370)
• O'Connor's "Revelation" (p. 1395)

For the story you select, write an essay of around 500 words on one of the following topics.

Option 1a.  Using the scheme explained in our Glossary of Critical Terms, classify the plot of one of the following stories in terms of the characterization of the protagonist.  (Along the way you might ask whether or not the story you are focusing on is an initiation story.)  Then explain how the story exploits plot-type it embodies in the service of its particular thematic ends.

Option 1b.  A key point to take to heart is that, in short stories, character may be more fundamental than plot. Kennedy & Gioia put the point this way:  "The action of a story usually grows out of the personality of its protagonist and the situation he or she faces.  As critic Phyllis Bottome observed, 'If a writer is true to his characters they will give him his plot.'"  Demonstrate some of the important ways in which the character of the protagonist creates action, in the story you choose to focus on, and explain how what this causes us to notice is important to the story's overall reason for being.  (Note that this question may be more appropriate for some of the stories listed above than for others.  Part of the level of insight you exhibit in your essay will lie in whether you pick a story that pays off well for this approach -- or not.)
 

• Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews" (p. 1494)
• Wolff's "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" (p. 1722)
• Barth's "Night-Sea Journey" (p 138)
• Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God" (p 436)
• LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (p. 1070)
• Disch's "The Man Who Read a Book" (p. 534)
• Bradbury's "The Veldt" (p. 200)
• Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" (p. 954)
• O'Connor's "Good Country People" (p. 1370)
• Kincaid’s "Girl" (p. 996)

For the story you select, write an essay of around 500 words in which you unpack in detail some important foil relationship the story develops.  Conclude by showing this systematic contrast serves the overall thematic ends of the story as a whole.

For an example of how you should customize this question in a specific case, see the Writing Assignment on Walker's "Everyday Use".  (In this case, remember that you have at your disposal two study guides to this story:  1 and 2.).  (Remember:  you can't write on Welty's story for this exam.  The references here are to useful illustrations to use as a model.)

Option 3.  Choose one of the following stories.  (Remember that you will not be able to write upon this story during the in-class portion of the exam.)

• Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews" (p. 1494)
• Wolff's "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" (p. 1722)
• Barth's "Night-Sea Journey" (p 138)
• Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"
• O'Connor's "Good Country People" (p. 1370)
• O'Connor's "Revelation" (p. 1395)

For the story you select, write an essay of around 500 words in which you explain how the story leads the reader to see the protagonist's action and/or experience as importantly determined by factors of which he or she is unconscious.  You'll need to commit yourself to some explicit account of what these unconscious factors are, and of the repression by which they are prevented from rising directly (i.e., in undisguised form) into the character's awareness.  Conclude by stating what you think the author invites us to think about (and feel towards) the protagonist in the light of the insights you have developed.

Before you commit yourself to a final draft, be sure to get clear upon the criteria by which they will be evaluated.  The explanation of these criteria is available in both a succinct and a detailed version.

Type or print-out your essay.  (That is:  please do not submit handwritten copy.)  Use single-spacing with one-inch margins and 12-point font.  (If you use a typewriter, you'll automatically end up with this.  If you print out an essay, be sure to set the font at 12-point.  [I would appreciate it if you would use Times New Roman font, but this is not mandatory.])

Be sure to put your name, section, and e-mail address in the upper right-hand corner of the page.  (If you are enrolled in one section, but attending the other, be sure to mention that fact.)

Bring your essay with you to the in-class exam session.  You must turn it in there.

On our exams and in our essays, students are acting under Kansas State University's provisions regarding Academic Honesty and Plagiarism.  An important point in these provisions is that instructors may spell out what degree of collaboration is permitted among students on specific assignments.  For this exam, you are positively encouraged to use the class Message Board to help each other in thinking through the facts and issues that are relevant to any of the questions on this prep sheet.  This includes your take-home essay.  However, the composition and editing of your essay must be entirely your own work.  You must include a signed statement at the end of your essay signifying that you are entirely responsible for the composition and editing of your essay.