Take-home Final Exam

Instructions:

Choose three of the following four prompts to develop into essays. Copy and paste the essay prompts into a document, and write up your response below the question. You may find it beneficial to quickly outline your response and make yourself a list of supporting details to include to help you structure your essay. Because these are compare and contrast questions, I will expect to see some reflection in your concluding paragraphs to explain what makes the readings similar or different. I will evaluate your essays based on the relevance, accuracy, and detail with which you present supporting evidence, as well as your reflection on the readings. Take time to think through these responses to develop your ideas. Save your work, and upload it to Courseweb by the due date at the designated upload point for the Midterm Exam under Assignments.

Over the course of this exam, to receive full credit you must write about all three texts: Radio Golf, Major Barbara, and Maus.

Due by Courseweb upload, by Thursday 4/25 by 11:59pm

  1. The mayor and the major: Harmond Wilks wanted to be mayor of Pittsburgh in Radio Golf, and Major Barbara wanted to save souls in the Salvation Army. To what extent are these characters comparable in their ambitions for themselves and visions for improving their communities? How much do their plans and goals change by the end of each play? In your conclusion, reflect on how much these plays resemble or differ in their treatment of each lead character.

  2. How do generational tensions and arguments between characters drive the plots of our readings? Consider what brings members of older and younger generations into conflict in any two of our readings. Are the conflicts resolved, and who seems to be prevailing (winning) by the end of each reading? Reflect on how the texts resemble or differ in their representation of generational difference.

  3. How have our readings represented exaggerated caricatures or types of characters in order to make a point about a serious issue? Consider how the caricature is represented (literally drawn in Maus and represented for the stage in Major Barbara or Radio Golf). What defining characteristics need to be drawn or represented to make the character recognizable as a type, as well as an individual? Finally, notice moments when characters really do not fit the type that is supposed to define them? How is this shown and why is it important in the text?

  4. What expectations do characters have that clearly separate them into distinct social classes in the way they behave and their expectations of life? Choose specific passages from two of our readings that emphasize social class distinctions, and consider what is being conveyed about social class values in each. Do characters change their views of themselves and their class in the course of the narrative?