GRE Literature in English (REA) (22 page)

 

101.
(E)

Again, your working vocabulary should help you, but the meaning can be gauged from the stanzas. If possible, read aloud and fit each word into the sentence. (C) is a possibility, but why use two words that mean the same? (D) suggests movement with affectation that is not demonstrated in Pope's mock heroic presentation of emblems.

 

102.
(C)

The last lines provide the clue if you do not know the whole poem, which was written to ridicule two families quarrelling over a trivial incident: the theft of a lock of hair. Pope, in “The Rape of the Lock,” builds the incident into a ridiculous Epic, mocking the epic traditions and more importantly, the foolishness of society around him.

 

103.
(E)

The key is to look carefully at the name and its connotations. There is a harshness, but the “grinding” down sound gives a notion also. There is a notion of wearing down, reducing, and in the end, the passage suggests a nonsense process behind the name. If you know the novel
Hard Times
, then the philosophy of the speaker adds to the passage.

 

104.
(A)

If you recognize Dickens as the author, you will know his reputation for purely descriptive writing: adjective piled upon adjective in a balanced structure. There is no allegorical (B) writing here. Metaphorical (C) writing exists, but that term does not encompass the language in use, nor does symbolic (D), although symbols are at work. Prosodic (E) refers to a particular type of verse—not in use here.

 

105.
(A)

The speaker's hair is likened to a plantation of firs but the author does not use the words
like
or
as
—the figure of speech is a metaphor. However, Dickens then follows the notion with the idea of the speaker's head looking
like
the crust of a plum pie—a simile. Know the terms for figures of speech for poetry as well as prose.

 

106.
(D)

Hard Times
is a lesser-known Dickens novel instructive in its criticism of England's educational system. You might surmise from the description that the author is Charles Dickens. If you are not aware of his unfinished novel
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
, analyze those you know: Samuel Butler (A), Turgenev (B), Charlotte Brontë (C) and George Eliot (E), and recall if this passage derives from those.

 

107.
(E)

Shaw is renowned for the fully detailed stage directions which add to the realism of the plays. You may recognize the Bulgarian setting for
Arms and the Man
. If not, the pure wealth of detail should lead you to think of Shaw. In your study of drama, take careful note of the different styles of stage directions.

 

108.
(B)

The grammar would suggest a lower-class character, a servant perhaps like Joseph (A) or a rough diamond squire like Mr. Western (C). However, the names Estella and Matthew Pocket should reveal
Great Expectations
. If you do not know this book, think of the other choices, none of which contain an Estella or a Matthew Pocket.

 

109.
(D)

Joe Gargery is a veritable Mr. Malaprop. The word meant is very similar in sound to “coddleshell”—a codicil (D), not a cockleshell (A). Read the passage closely and eliminate why he should be talking about (A) in the context of a will or why shell-pink paper (E) would be attached to an official document. Your working vocabulary should sift the rest.

 

110.
(A)

Post-Modernism is becoming more widely understood, both as a means of literature and criticism, since the works of such writers cum critics as David Lodge simplify the jargon and explain the philosophies of early proponents such as Jacques Derrida. The other choices have elements of Post-Modernism, but often one element counteracts another as in humor (B).

 

111.
(B)

Hellenism became part of Matthew Arnold's world-view and produced a very important essay. Look at Arnold's essays as well as his poetry for excellent insights into the thinking of the nineteenth century, especially in regard to education and England's relationship with America.

 

112.
(A)

Read Coleridge's
Biographia Literaria
for his thoughts on the mind and imagination. Like Mill, Coleridge sees magical, almost mystical healing powers in the imagination. Recognize work by Coleridge in this field by the key words Imagination and Fancy, which are always capitalized. The criticism aids in the understanding of Coleridge's poetry.

 

113.
(C)

Even if you do not know T. S. Eliot's essays (the most important mentions the “objective correlative” in his criticism of
Hamlet
), you will recognize the calm, balanced tone of the prose. Contrast with the strident, almost querulous, tone of Carlyle (E). Key concerns for Eliot are the integrity of the writer and writing as a state of art.

 

114.
(A)

Nick Carraway, the most intriguing of narrators, simply relates the dialogue between Gatsby and Daisy. If you do not know
The Great Gatsby
, or do not recall this particular passage, think of the other narrators listed. (B) and (C) do not involve themselves as narrators as (D) sometimes does. (E), Barth's Giles or George, relates stranger dialogues than this.

 

115.
(D)

It is as if the stopped clock is smashed to pieces as the time between the lovers' meetings is gradually being destroyed. Gatsby and Daisy should have married five years ago; the time between has been wasted time emotionally, if not financially, for Gatsby, who builds his empire to regain the only woman he has ever loved.

 

116.
(B)

The other man, of course, is Gatsby, who has counted the minutes in a classically Romantic way since losing Daisy, and has put his time to “good” use in building a fortune. From the tone of the conversation the other choices can be eliminated, especially (E), Tom Buchanan, who is not mentioned here and indeed knows nothing of the meeting.

 

117.
(B)

If you recognize
The Great Gatsby
and know F. Scott Fitzgerald's work, this is straightforward. If not, think of the authors of these novels involving time: Djuna Barnes (A), John Fowles (C), Anthony Powell (D), Graham Greene (E), and eliminate by those you do know.

 

118.
(D)

Even if you do not know the poem, the phrase “darkling plain” should resurrect the association of “Dover Beach” where a love-regret develops into a world-view. Analyze the other titles and decide if any of them have the progression described, or, decide which poet wrote which poem: Wordsworth (A), Browning (B), Coleridge (C), Keats (E).

 

119.
(C)

The poet meditates on not only the destruction of empires, but on man's status on earth—the futility of countries building empires or men building statues to themselves because, in time, all vestiges of man's stay on earth will be hidden, as if by the sands of time. Ozymandias spoke truer than he knew when instructing “Look on my works... and despair!”

 

120.
(C)

The face of the mammoth statue still retains the frown, wrinkled lip, and sneer of command of the ruler—all words that suggest coldness and arrogance. The poet reveals nothing about the sculptor's attitude to his model, other than that he captured the likeness well. Read the three lines carefully so that you capture the adjectives and the sculptor's role.

 

121.
(A)

If you do not know the poet, Percy Shelley, go through the choices to analyze who you do know: Coleridge (B), Keats (C), Gray (D), T. S. Eliot (E). Then go one stage further and think of the range of the poets and whether “Ozymandias” belongs to that poet. This tests whether you can recognize the poet's range. In this case, the two poems are in direct contrast.

 

122.
(E)

If you do not know
A Room With A View
, eliminate from the choices of heroines and chaperones the right heroine, the wrong chaperone (A)—Mrs. Allen is from Austen's
Northanger Abbey
, Caroline Abbott (B) from Forster's
Where Angels Fear to Tread
and Mrs. Moore of
A Passage to India,
(C) from
The Great Gatsby
, and Mrs. Fairfax (D) from
Jane Eyre
.

 

123.
(C)

You need to know Forster's works for this word, repeated in A
Room With A View
and featured in his novels and short stories. However, recalling the humanism of Forster you would discount the strength of (A) and (E) and the exaggeration of (B) and (D). The author wishes human beings simply “to connect” and “muddle” gets in the way.

 

124.
(B)

If you do not know the work, you might be confused by the choices, which all involve war-like passages. However, if you read the passage closely and detect the long heroic simile, you will narrow the choice to (A) and (B). Think then of
The Odyssey's
tales, all much lighter in tone than
The Iliad
, even when death is involved.

 

125.
(A)

Even without knowledge of this particular text and the name for the Greeks, you will recall the war between Greece and Troy for a hundred years starting with the abduction of Helen by Paris. The others, except perhaps the Romans, do not figure in large eloquent pieces of description such as this, nor did they worship Zeus, a clue from the passage itself.

 

126.
(E)

Again if you are not sure of the battle, analyze the choices: (A) are on the same side; Boadicea (B), a British heroine, fights the Romans, not one particular hero; Jason (C) lived in the generation prior to Priam; Achilles and Patroklos (D) were dearest friends—the death of the latter restores Achilles to the battle where he cruelly slaughters Hector.

 

127.
(B)

Frequently a Homeric simile will begin describing one aspect and, after its lengthy run, end up with a totally different focus. The effect is still striking. Here the first image is of the softness of snow, but the last lines contrast that softness with the image of “stones volleyed,” “thrown,” “flung” and the idea of the noise of the stones as “thunder.”

 

128.
(D)

There are elements of each choice that are viable but the main effect of the snow causing a haze over the works of man and bringing all into uniformity universalizes the scene. The armies then could be any armies; the soldiers are all men. Homer's listeners felt, and today's readers feel, for humanity in the struggle.

 

129.
(C)

Perhaps the most famous of Joyce's stories captures the same effect at its close. Snow is falling over all of Ireland but the effect is universal. We feel not simply for the protagonists but for humanity. The other choices deal with similar effects of rain or snow, but do not move into the realm of universalizing an experience.

 

130.
(D)

The main character is unique in James' work in that she is a child, and the narrative is unique in the art of the novel because the events are seen through a child's consciousness. The idea came from a real case where the child became a shuttlecock between changing sets of parents. If you do not know the novel, analyze those familiar to you—none centers around one child.

 

131.
(A)

Sylvia Plath's “The Mirror” begins with the woman's mirror at home “speaking.” In the second stanza there is still a mirror, but this time the woman sees her reflection in a lake, another mirror refusing to give an untrue image of the woman. She can destroy that image by agitating the water. You do not need to know the poem to derive the meaning from context.

 

132.
(A)

Once you have established the metaphor of the lake as mirror and the fact that the woman does not want her real, true image, you will derive the meaning of the “liars,” the soft, flattering lights that people use so that they can hide the wrinkles and the sagging flesh of the aging face.

 

133.
(B)

The mirror refuses, indeed is incapable of, reflecting the young girl who has “gone down” with age. It must show the truth, the aging woman with her disappointments and scaling, old wrinkled skin. The lake metaphor does not stretch far enough for the woman to feel like a fish [(C) and (D)]; mirrors don't change (A); and the mirror's silver backing (E) is not addressed by the poem.