GRE Literature in English (REA) (23 page)

 

134.
(D)

The poet is obviously a woman. It would take an ingenious male poet to capture the woman's feelings at aging—eliminate (C) and (E). Emily Dickinson's style (A) is distinctive; her poetry is instantly recognized by structure alone. Amy Lowell's (B) would contain repeated symbolism.

 

135.
(B)

The title
Shadow of the Glen
or the content of the passage should reveal the playwright, for Synge was involved with the Abbey Theater group who wanted to revitalize the Irish language and prove that natural speech was suitable for the stage. Analyze the other Irish names listed, the body of work of each, and whether the passage's title fits.

 

136.
(C)

You do not need to know Synge's theories. Derive the meaning from the passage. If he learned from listening to Wicklow servant girls, then obviously he was interested in the speech and rhythms of the simple country folk. He adds a rider for the use of the language if that language is “rich and copious,” not “bright” or “dirty.”

 

137.
(D)

This scene in the last section of
The Sound and the Fury
is crucial to the whole structure. Here, Dilsey recognizes the “first and the last” of the Compson family and time, symbolized by the Christmas bell, even though the time is Easter: birth and resurrection. If you do not know the passage, the heat and the sparseness of the scene would suggest a Southern, Faulknerian church.

 

138.
(A)

The names may well reveal the novel. If not, the song, the audience participation, and the tambourine would reveal the church as James Baldwin's. The stiff, deathly church scenes in (B) and (E) would discount them. (C) is a possibility, but the refrains from the hymns establish a white Presbyterian service from
The Damnation of Theron Ware
.

 

139.
(B)

George Bowling reminisces about his childhood church in passages replete with memories. Time has given the church scene an aura of mystery. If you do not know the Orwell novel, you may confuse the scene with (E) from James Joyce's
Grace
, but that church is established as very proper—hints being the way men are dressed and the “high altar”—not an Orwellian church scene.

 

140.
(C)

Increasingly popular, Lessing's novel is well worth studying. If you do not know the work, think of the other “Annas” listed. (D) and (E) are, in fact, “Annies” so they can be eliminated. If you know the other two, you know they did not want or wait for a deus ex machina in their lives; they handled their own destinies.

 

141.
(D)

The keywords here are “current usage.” The original term was used for a device in the theater that was lowered from the top of the stage as if a god were entering the drama to manipulate the turn of events. In current usage, the term is found in criticism of all genres for one who turns around imminent disaster.

 

142.
(C)

The title and brief description should reveal the author. If you are not familiar with the work, the comparison with Faulkner and Kafka would immediately cancel choices (B) and (E). Then think of the body of work of (A) and (C) and fit the title into that body, or think of how they might resemble Faulkner and Kafka.

 

143.
(E)

Some of the choices can be eliminated immediately if you do not recognize the work from the description. (C) is full of coarse mishaps and (D) has disembowelings and floggings, but never resurrection. (B) is more magical with Gulliver in the land of the giants, but as with the magic quality of (A), real life prevails and we do sympathize with the victims.

 

144.
(B)

If you have identified the work correctly, you will recall Pangloss' statement. If unsure, identify the other choices: McCawber (A) is in
David Copperfield
, the narrator (C) is in
Slaughterhouse-Five
, Lambert Strether (D) is in
The Ambassadors
, and Uriah Heep (E) is in
David Copperfield
.

 

145.
(D)

You may not recognize Emerson's work
Nature
, but the New England Transcendentalists had a certain turn of phrase that identifies them with the basic elements of their belief. In this passage, the notion of an extra sense, an inspiration from outside the body, links immediately to transcendentalism. The premise does not apply to the other choices.

 

146.
(D)

William James wrote a number of brilliant essays but is best remembered for his work on pragmatism. The passage delineates some part of his philosophy and the word “pragmatically” is the keyword here. Like that of his brother Henry, William James' prose is convoluted, the sentences longer than the modern norm—another key to identification.

 

147.
(A)

The Transcendentalists were criticized for their withdrawal from society and seemingly effete approach to life. This is Emerson's defense, stressing the fact that he does not criticize progress or technology; he is not a “back to nature” hermit. But he does add the proviso that technology comes from an outside source that transcends the work of man.

 

148.
(B)

You should recognize Gonzalo's ideal commonwealth from
The Tempest
. He is garrulous and not particularly smart, but wise enough to know when to cheer up the king and when to leave him alone. The utopia he describes is ridiculed by the other courtiers, but it does have some good points, without advocating an ideal communism.

 

149.
(D)

Most Shakespeare texts explicate this passage clearly. If you do not know the passage, slip in each of the possibilities with close regard to the rest of the paradoxes, i.e., “tilth” may sound close to taxes—certainly Gonzalo does not want these, but the word means land cultivation. He is not against streams but against boundaries (bourn).

 

150.
(A)

From context, gather the gist of the passage. Gonzalo may simply mean harvest (B) or fodder (E), but in this utopia, the crops would be abundant. In (D) you may be confused with the French word
poisson
meaning fish, but it does not fit the utopia context, nor does the similar sounding name poison (C), which no doubt Gonzalo would disallow on his island.

 

151.
(B)

Gonzalo's utopia suggests that all the goodness and riches would be achieved without any effort on the part of the inhabitants (thus not an ideal communism), which counteracts the biblical teaching of man having to work for his living, from which developed the Protestant work ethic. None of the other choices are mentioned in the context of this passage.

 

152.
(B)

Shakespeare read widely and borrowed extensively. He follows closely Montaigne's essay
Of the Cannibals
for Gonzalo's utopia. If you have identified
The Tempest
correctly, you can eliminate choices (A), (C), (D), and (E).

 

153.
(D)

The general effect of the long sentence and the piling up of detail one after the other, separated only by the comma, is to create a breathlessness. (B) is a possibility, but the vigor and excitement is not the rambling of an old man, nor is there a haze over the writing (C), but rather an immediacy. The passage does not suggest waste (A) or sadness (E).

 

154.
(E)

There is a rhetoric (B) here which is religious (D); there is celebration (C) and the whole effect is of someone reading aloud in an oratorical fashion (A). However, the specific oratory is the incantation of a psalm or prayer. If possible, read the passage aloud and the repetition of “for ever and ever (world) without end (Amen)” comes through very clearly.

 

155.
(D)

The author looks back on those summers as if they would never end—the feeling one often has as a child. The other choices have some validity, but the point is the eternity of childhood summers captured by the incantation of a prayer. If you know the essay, the author returning to the same place with his son perpetuates the endless circle of time.

 

156.
(C)

The key words are “background” and “design”; all the other details fill in the painting. Once the metaphor is established, return to line 1 and pick up the “fadeproof” idea, the lake in the painting's background never fading (a Keatsian notion). The photographs are not true pictures because they embellish. White's painting holds the truth within it.

 

157.
(C)

Identify, first of all, the author of the piece. All the writers are capable of morbidity such as this, but here Dr. Lydgate refers to his trivial wife Rosamond who has destroyed his integrity in George Eliot's masterpiece
Middlemarch
. The allusion is to Keats's “Isabella or the Pot of Basil.” If you know one of the works, the other will fall into place.

 

158.
(C)

If you do not know the novel, the keywords are “prison life.” Analyze the other choices deliberating if those characters ever went to prison or experienced “rebirth.” Without knowing the novel, think how the title alone suggests that the protagonist is punished, and the most famous of such protagonists is Raskolnikov.

 

159.
(D)

Without knowing the novel or perhaps not recognizing the passage, read how the passage reveals that the man has been ill, but there is neither exultation at being raised from the dead as Lazarus experienced in the New Testament parable, nor a religious conversion. You need to know the parable and eliminate the choices that cannot be given from the text.

 

160.
(D)

Strindberg's preface to
Miss Julie
holds a wealth of criticism on drama techniques as well as an insight into the playwright's methods. He criticizes the practice of writers simply pursuing stock characters and not attending to the range of human qualities. Even if you have not read the preface, the context will show the way the playwright thinks.

 

161.
(A)

Stock characters produce stock phrases and Dickens has a full appreciation of how a stock character works. If you do not recognize the courting cry of Mr. Barkis, then analyze the other choices. None of the other works, despite their importance and possibility for stock characters, have produced a phrase that is instantly recognizable.

 

162.
(B)

It is difficult to learn all the plots of the pilgrims' tales, but the main ones are worth studying closely. Some of the pilgrims have distinct personalities which Chaucer plays on and develops along with the tales. Read closely the description here and analyze which pilgrim tells which tale and which ones have a certain irony behind their story.

 

163.
(C)

The Pardoner's story outrages the pilgrims because he has just revealed how he dupes country folk into believing pigs' bones are the relics of Christ, and makes a fortune out of duplicity. Yet his story's conclusion warns against avarice, stressing the fact that “money is the root of all evil.” The other tales are fun but without this depth of irony.

 

164.
(B)

Literary meals are very important, bringing together characters, or functioning as prologues to climaxes, disasters, or simply as celebrations. Here Mrs. Ramsey serves her beautiful stew with her family and friends gathered around her, each character revealing his or her thoughts. The wistful style of the passage distinguishes it from the other choices.

 

165.
(C)

If you do not know the epic poem
Le Morte D'Arthur
and the story of King Arthur bidding Sir Bedivere three times to throw away the sword, then recall the legend. Eliminate Gawain talking to his horse (B), and misplaced characters (E). Sir Lancelot (D) did not carry Excalibur. Sir Galahad (A) died before King Arthur upon beholding the Grail.

 

166.
(D)

Mystical materials such as samite are crucial to legends and epics. Think of Penelope's and the Lady of Shalott's webs. If you do not know the word, eliminate the heavy armor (A) and the heraldic devices (E)—illustrations show the material as pure and soft without decoration, glistening as silk does, especially inset with gold and silver.