Week 5 Exam

The Week Three Exam is due this Friday, 9/28/2012, to be submitted electronically via SafeAssign, available on Blackboard under Course Assignments.
Please respond to all of the following prompts:

A. Narration  (~ one typed 12pt font, double-spaced page)
1. What is the point of view of the narration? Use textual references to support your claim.
2. A story can be very different depending on who tells it. How does the point of view of the narrator affect the audience's understanding of the story? Use textual references to support your claim.
3. What details does this narration provide that are unique to the narration's point of view?
4. Taking all of these details and references into consideration, how does this narration function as part of the larger novel?
5. State what you believe to be the central theme of the novel and discuss how this narration functions to support that theme.

B. Character  (~ one typed 12pt font, double-spaced page)
1. Pick a character besides Esther Summerson from the novel.
2. Provide a description of the character from the text.
3. Find and briefly describe three events from the text involving the character.
4. Discuss the role the character plays in these events.
5. Discuss how the narration's point of view impacts the audience's perception of the character.
6. How does the text construct this character? Is he well-developed, a caricature, highly symbolic? Present textual references to support your case.
7. Why does the text construct this character in this way? How does this construction contribute to the overall theme(s) of the novel?

C. Setting  (~ one typed 12pt font, double-spaced page)

1. Pick a setting (location) in the novel.
2. Provide a description of the setting (location) from the text.
3. Find and briefly describe three events from the text involving this particular setting.
4. Discuss the role this setting plays in these events.
5. Why do/must these events occur in this place? Provide textual references to support your case.
6. Discuss how the narration's point of view impacts the audience's perception of the setting.
6. How does the text construct this setting? Is it well-developed, a caricature, highly symbolic? Present textual references to support your case.
7. Why does the text construct this particular setting in this way? How does this construction contribute to the overall theme(s) of the novel?

D. Theme  (~ half of a typed 12pt font, double-spaced page)
1. Find three quotes from the text that illustrate what you believe the theme to be.
2. Write a paragraph explaining why you think these quotes illustrate the theme.
3. What has the author chosen to discuss this theme in a novel?
4. What other ways are there to write about or bring these themes into public discourse?
5. What advantages and disadvantages are there to discussing the theme in a novel? Provide textual support.

E. Criticism  (~ half of a typed 12pt font, double-spaced page)
1. Read the Brimley review on page 933 of the text.
2. Identify two or three criticisms that Brimley has of Bleak House.
3. Provide a definition of verisimilitude.
4. Brimley's critique depends in large part on the value he places on verisimilitude. On the points of criticism you noted above, it is possible that author was aware of the gap between realistic construction and his final product, or perhaps he was not aware. Either way, how does the straying away from reality function in the text. Does it, (A) occur as the result of the author working to push one convention at the expense of another, or (B), occur as the result of an intended variance from realistic depiction? For either case, explain how the text is served, how the central theme is supported because of the apparent variance.