ENG 102 SPRING 2025  DEPARTMENTAL ESSAY/Final Exam   Please read the flash fiction short story below. In a five-paragraph essay, analyze and interpret the story as you answer the question: WHAT DOES THIS STORY SUGGEST ABOUT THE NATURE OF RESILIENCE IN EVERYDAY LIFE? What does it mean to be resilient in the face of setbacks or disappointments? Can you recall a time when you had to keep going despite fear, failure, or fatigue? Where do you find the strength to bounce back after life knocks you down? All students are required to: Use quotes from the text to illustrate how the theme works in this piece of literature. Include 5 LITERARY TERMS in support of your analysis. Make these literary terms easily visible to your reader by underlining them, putting them in ALL CAPS, or highlighting them. Provide in-text citations and a works cited entry. Your average paragraph should be at least 10-12 sentences long.  The MLA works cited template for a reading provided by an instructor is below with a sample to help you create a correct works cited entry.   Citation Pattern:Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Story.” Canvas, uploaded by Kelvin King, 3 December 2024, lawsonstate.canvas.com       “The Third Try” by Luis Moreno The bread didn’t rise. Again. Ava stared at the stubborn dough, flat and pale beneath the kitchen towel. She had followed the instructions exactly this time—or at least, almost. She had proofed the yeast, kneaded patiently, even whispered a little encouragement into the bowl, like her grandmother used to do. Still, failure. For a moment, she wanted to give up. After a week like this—car trouble, a failed job interview, her sister’s silence—what difference did bread make? But it wasn’t about the bread. It was about doing something that could work if she just tried hard enough. She washed her hands, sighed, and started again. Warm water, sugar, yeast. This time, she noticed the water had been too hot before. She adjusted, stirred gently. The yeast began to bubble. Hours later, when she pulled the golden-brown loaf from the oven, she didn’t cry—but her shoulders dropped, and she exhaled a long, tired breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. It was just bread. And it was everything.

Essay  (300-500 words). In the beginning of your essay, make sure you briefly establish the genres and time periods of authors (“time period” refers to dates, according to century, of the authors. For example, the 18th century).     Description:   In the essay, you’ll need to discuss the assigned portions of the literary works of assigned authors (not their biographies or other, non-assigned works). Your essays will be evaluated on factual correctness, the ability to directly answer the question, the ability to analyze, and the ability to make specific observations about the literary works, and writing ability (clarity and correctness). See “Division Grading Standards for Papers and In-Class Essays” in your syllabus. Essay Question:  “Throughout the semester, we’ve learned about authors who felt a strong sense of social responsibility and attempted to instill this sense in their readers. These authors focused on enacting social reform and encouraging their readers to become more inclusive, more egalitarian, and/or more humane. Discuss 2-3 authors from the assigned readings who wrote with the intention of enacting social change. Drawing from the assigned literary works from this class, what were their specific criticisms of American culture, and how did they attempt to persuade others to enact reform?  In your answer, briefly discuss at least one assigned work by each author and identify their arguments and strategies for enacting social reform. What did they wish to change about society, and how do they try to convince their audience to make these changes? Suggestions:  Bradstreet, Las Casas, Cooper, Douglass, Equiano, Freneau, Fuller, Jacobs, Thoreau, or Williams.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minster’s Black Veil,” how do the members of Mr. Hooper’s church respond to his wearing of the veil?

The following question pertains to Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener.”  Having accepted Bartleby’s eccentricities in exchange for his skills and industry as a copyist, what does the narrator learn about Bartleby’s actions one Sunday morning?

Identify the poet who wrote the following passage: And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;     So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating     “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door— Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;—             This it is and nothing more.”

Anne Bradstreet’s poetry demonstrates the Puritan emphasis on humility.

Which writer stated that the death of a beautiful woman is the “most poetical topic” in literature?

TRUE or FALSE: In The Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin promotes the virtues of hard work and industry. 

Identify the poet who wrote the following passage: God preaches, a noted Clergyman – And the sermon is never long, So instead of getting to Heaven, at last – I’m going, all along.

TRUE or FALSE: Frederick Douglass had a birth certificate upon which his birthdate and father’s name were printed.